Abstract 5930: Osteoblasts protect AML cells from cytarabine-induced death
Authors: Sterner Rosalie M. , Kremer Kimberly N. , Dudakovic Amel , Westendorf Jennifer J. , Wijnen Andre J. van , Hedin Karen E. 
Published: July 2017

The hematological malignancy acute myeloid leukemia (AML) interacts closely with osteoblasts within the protective bone marrow microenvironment. The bone marrow microenvironment protects tumor cells from chemotherapies, which can prevent sufficient eradication of tumor cells. To study the role of osteoblasts in the bone marrow microenvironment, our lab utilized a co-culture model of osteoblasts (MC3T3 osteoblast cell line) and acute myelogenous leukemia cells (KG1a AML cell line or AML patient samples from bone marrow aspirates). Osteoblasts were cultured with AML cells, or AML cells were cultured alone; AML cells were challenged with the standard chemotherapeutic agent cytarabine (Ara-C) at doses of 0µM, 0.1µM, 0.5µM, 1µM, 5µM, or 10µM in the presence or absence of osteoblasts; and AML cells were assayed by flow cytometry to assess cell death via annexin-V staining. Our lab has previously found that differentiating osteoblasts protect AML cells from an apoptosis inducing agent naturally present in the bone marrow. We now show that osteoblasts are also capable of protecting AML cells from the standard chemotherapeutic cytarabine. In addition, we have found that treatment of osteoblasts with the histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) prevents these treated osteoblasts from protecting AML cells from cytarabine treatment, which is consistent with our lab’s previous findings that HDACi treatment inhibits protection of AML cells from an apoptosis inducing agent naturally present in the bone marrow. We have preliminary data that indicates that TAZS89A over-expression, a constitutively active form of TAZ, which is a transcriptional modulator that regulates osteoblast differentiation, may be sufficient to inhibit osteoblast mediated protection of AML cells from cytarabine. This finding would be consistent with the HDACi manipulated Nherf1-protein phosphatase 1α-TAZ signaling pathway that we have previously found to be sufficient to inhibit protection of AML cells from an apoptosis inducing agent naturally present in the bone marrow. Overall, these studies have delivered insights into the role of osteoblasts in protecting AML cells from chemotherapy in the bone marrow microenvironment and begun the characterization of mechanisms and targets responsible for the protective effects of osteoblasts. Manipulating differentiating osteoblasts within the bone marrow microenvironment therapeutically could aid in more complete destruction of the tumor cell burden and improve patient survival.

Citation Format: Rosalie M. Sterner, Kimberly N. Kremer, Amel Dudakovic, Jennifer J. Westendorf, Andre J. van Wijnen, Karen E. Hedin. Osteoblasts protect AML cells from cytarabine-induced death [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5930. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5930