Transcription factor expression in B-cell precursor-leukemia cell lines: Preferential expression of T-bet

A number of transcription factors (TFs) have been reported that play crucial roles in hematopoiesis. However, only little is known about how these factors are involved in the mechanisms of hematopoietic development and lineage commitment. To investigate the roles of TFs in human B-cell precursors (BCPs), the present study analyzed the expression of the following 16 hematopoietic TFs: AML1, C/EBPα, C/EBPβ, C/EBPγ, C/EBPε, E2A, Ets-1, GATA-1, GATA-2, GATA-3, Ikaros, IRF-1, Pax5, PU.1, T-bet and TCF-1 in 30 human BCP-leukemia cell lines. All BCP-leukemia cell lines were found to be positive for the expression of AML1, C/EBPγ, E2A, Ets-1, IRF-1, Pax5 and PU.1 at the mRNA level. The mRNA expression of C/EBPα, C/EBPβ, C/EBPε, GATA-2, Ikaros, T-bet and TCF-1 was detected in 2 to 29 of the cell lines. Eight BCP-cell lines showed positivity for the dominant negative Ikaros isoform Ik6, while others were positive for expression of Ik1, 2, 3 and 4. GATA-1 and GATA-3 were universally negative. The expression of C/EBPα, PU.1 and T-bet was positive at the protein level in five, 29 and four out of 30 BCP-cell lines, respectively. Cell lines were stimulated with interleukin (IL)-7 and/or interferon (IFN)-γ to investigate the regulation of TF expression. T-bet was clearly induced in the two cell lines NALM-19 and NALM-29 after stimulation. C/EBPβ and IRF-1 were up-regulated in both cell lines and TCF-1 was down-regulated in NALM-19. No significant changes were observed for the other 12 TFs. The present report could provide useful information in the study of the role of TFs on normal and malignant human BCPs.