The "n-1" model for myelodysplastic syndromes.
Current models of leukaemogenesis tend to visualize this process as consisting of several discrete steps. Since myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are, almost by definition, pre-leukaemic disorders, we expect that bone marrow from patients with MDS must contain cells which are one step short of full leukaemic transformation: we designate these cells, for convenience, as "n-1". It should be possible therefore to obtain leukaemic transformation in vitro by introducing into n-1 cells a gene with an appropriate leukaemogenic mutation. We have found, by using as a model system the retrovirus VSN-2 (which carries the neomycin-phosphotransferase gene, neo, which confers resistance to the antibiotic G418), that human bone marrow cells can be successfully transfected in microcultures. Indeed, G418-resistant CFU-CM have been recovered from these cultures for a period of several weeks.
Luzzatto
L
L
Department of Haematology, Hammersmith Hospital Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, U.K.
Colonna
F
F
Reilly
I
I
D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics; D014162:Transfection