Project description:B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common type of leukemia, characterized by the progressive accumulation of CD5+ “mature” monoclonal B lymphocytes in peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymphoid tissues. Although circulating CLL cells are non-dividing cells, prone to spontaneous apoptosis, their progressive accumulation is the result of a dynamic balance between cell death and proliferation and a high turn-over rate has been related to a poor prognosis. Indeed, CLL cells are protected from apoptosis and proliferate in specific niches within the lymphoid tissues and the bone marrow. CLL cells show variable expression of IL-21R that can be up-regulated by cell activation via CD40. CD40-activated CLL cells phosphorylate STAT-1 and STAT-3 and undergo apoptosis in response to IL-21 stimulation. By gene-expression profiling we found out that IL-21 modulates the expression of several genes including cytokine and chemokine genes and genes involved in cell survival and apoptosis in CD40-activated CLL cells.
Project description:B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common type of leukemia, characterized by the progressive accumulation of CD5+ “mature” monoclonal B lymphocytes in peripheral blood, bone marrow and lymphoid tissues. Although circulating CLL cells are non-dividing cells, prone to spontaneous apoptosis, their progressive accumulation is the result of a dynamic balance between cell death and proliferation and a high turn-over rate has been related to a poor prognosis. Indeed, CLL cells are protected from apoptosis and proliferate in specific niches within the lymphoid tissues and the bone marrow. By gene-expression profiling we found out that IL-21 modulates the expression of several genes including cytokine and chemokine genes and genes involved in cell survival and apoptosis in CD40-activated CLL cells. To gain information of the possible mechanisms involved in the regulation of these genes we tested the possibility that IL-21 may act through specific miRNA regulation.