Abstract
Tumors contain heterogeneous cell populations and achieve dominance by functioning as collective systems. The mechanisms underlying the aberrant growth and interactions between cells are not very well understood. The pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells we studied were obtained directly from a patient with Ph+ ALL. A new Ph+ ALL cell line (ALL3) was established from the leukemic cells growing as ascitic cells in his pleural fluid. The patient died of his disease shortly after the cells were obtained. ALL3 cells grow well at high cell densities (HD), but not at low cell densities. ALL3 cells are very sensitive to potent tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) such as Dasatinib and PD166325, but less sensitive to AMN 107, Imatinib, and BMS 214662 (a farnesyl transferase inhibitor). Here, we show that the growth of the LD ALL3 cells can be stimulated to grow in the presence of diffusible, soluble factors secreted by ALL3 cells themselves growing at high density. We also show that exosomes, part of the secretome components, are also able to stimulate the growth of the non-growing LD ALL3 cells and modulate their proliferative behavior. Characterization of the exosome particles also showed that the HD ALL3 cells are able to secret them in large quantities and that they are capable of inducing the growth of the LD ALL3 cells without which they will not survive. Direct stimulation of non-growing LD ALL3 cells using purified exosomes shows that the ALL3 cells can also communicate with each other by means of exchange of exosomes independently of direct cell-cell contacts or diffusible soluble stimulatory factors secreted by HD ALL3 cells.