title: Hemangioblastic characteristics of cancer stem cells in chronic myeloid leukemia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Overwhelming evidence from Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) research indicates that patients harbor quiescent CML stem cells that are responsible for blast crisis. While the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) origin of CML was first suggested over 30 years ago, recently CML-initiating cells beyond HSCs are also being investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here we isolated fetal liver kinase-1-positive (Flk1+) cells from CML patients and we tested their biological characteristics. In addition, endothelial and hematopoietic differentiation assays were also performed to test their cancer stem cell ability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found these cells expressed the BCR/ABL specific CML oncogene. Co-culture assay also indicated they could promote HSC blast colonies. Further studies showed they could differentiate not only into endothelial lineages but also into erythroid cells at the single-cell level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Fetal bone marrow-derived Flk1+CD34- multipotent stem cells have the capacity for self-renewal and multilineage differentiation even after being expanded for more than 50 cell doublings, they might be the cancer stem cells and a target source in the treatment of CML.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Center, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Guangdong, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xishan
authors.forename: Zhou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lawei
authors.forename: Liu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult