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Neoplastic circulating endothelial‐like cells in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia
Author(s) -
Rigolin Gian Matteo,
Mauro Endri,
Ciccone Maria,
Fraulini Chiara,
Sofritti Olga,
Castoldi Gianluigi,
Cuneo Antonio
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.2007.00839.x
Subject(s) - vasculogenesis , angiogenesis , bone marrow , pathogenesis , myeloid , pathology , progenitor cell , medicine , immunology , stem cell , cancer research , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Accumulating evidence suggests that angiogenesis may play a key role in the pathogenesis of leukaemic disorders. Several studies have shown that bone marrow‐derived endothelial cells (EC) may contribute to tumour angiogenesis and that in the peripheral blood of cancer patients there is an increased amount of circulating ECs (CECs) that may participate to new vessel formation. In this report, we showed that, in seven acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients with known cytogenetic abnormalities, CEC levels were significantly increased in comparison with controls and that a significant proportion of these CECs carried the same chromosomal aberration as blast cells (20–78%, mean value 42.1% of CECs). Most of CECs (mean value 74.4%) displayed immunophenotypic features of endothelial progenitor cells as they expressed CD133, a marker gradually lost during EC differentiation and absent on mature EC. These findings suggest a possible direct contribution of AML‐related CECs to tumour vasculogenesis and possibly to the spreading and progression of the disease.