Early Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cell Line EU-1

Application

Cancer cell line derived from a relapsed pediatric patient with early B-cell precursor (Pre-B) acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Key Benefits

Well-characterized continuous leukemia-lymphoma cell line.
Expresses wild-type p53 and over-expresses MDM2 oncoprotein.
Expresses wild-type Bcl-2, Bcl-xl, and Bax.

Technical Summary

p53 is a tumor suppressor protein that in humans is encoded by the TP53 gene. p53 regulates the cell cycle and thereby functions as a tumor suppressor that is involved in preventing cancer. Mutation or inactivation of the p53 gene has been implicated in a wide range of human malignancies, however most cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia express normal p53. The MDM2 oncoprotein is the human homolog of the mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) gene product and acts as an important negative regulator of the p53 tumor suppressor by binding to the N-terminal trans-activation domain of p53 and inhibiting transcriptional activation of the p53 gene.

Emory researchers have established a cell line from a pediatric patient with relapsed, early B cell precursor (Pre-B) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This cell line has been well-characterized. It expresses a wild-type p53 gene and over-expresses the MDM2 oncoprotein. The over-expression of MDM2 has been shown to overcome the tumor-repression activity of p53 in leukemic cells that express wild-type levels of p53. The phenotype of the EU-1 cell line provides a research tool to study the role of MDM2 in the pathogenesis of pediatric ALL.