FLT3/D835Y mutation knock-in mice display less aggressive disease compared with FLT3/internal tandem duplication (ITD) mice

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Dec 24;110(52):21113-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1310559110. Epub 2013 Nov 19.

Abstract

FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is mutated in approximately one third of acute myeloid leukemia cases. The most common FLT3 mutations in acute myeloid leukemia are internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations in the juxtamembrane domain (23%) and point mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain (10%). The mutation substituting the aspartic acid at position 838 (equivalent to the human aspartic acid residue at position 835) with a tyrosine (referred to as FLT3/D835Y hereafter) is the most frequent kinase domain mutation, converting aspartic acid to tyrosine. Although both of these mutations constitutively activate FLT3, patients with an ITD mutation have a significantly poorer prognosis. To elucidate the mechanisms behind this prognostic difference, we have generated a knock-in mouse model with a D838Y point mutation in FLT3 that corresponds to the FLT3/D835Y mutation described in humans. Compared with FLT3/ITD knock-in mice, the FLT3/D835Y knock-in mice survive significantly longer. The majority of these mice develop myeloproliferative neoplasms with a less-aggressive phenotype. In addition, FLT3/D835Y mice have distinct hematopoietic development patterns. Unlike the tremendous depletion of the hematopoietic stem cell compartment we have observed in FLT3/ITD mice, FLT3/D835Y mutant mice are not depleted in hematopoietic stem cells. Further comparisons of these FLT3/D835Y knock-in mice with FLT3/ITD mice should provide an ideal platform for dissecting the molecular mechanisms that underlie the prognostic differences between the two different types of FLT3 mutations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Gene Knock-In Techniques / methods*
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / genetics*
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / pathology*
  • Mice
  • Models, Animal*
  • Mutation, Missense / genetics
  • Prognosis
  • Segmental Duplications, Genomic / genetics
  • fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3 / genetics*

Substances

  • Flt3 protein, mouse
  • fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3