6.3 Eμ-Myc transgenic models
Burkitt lymphoma/leukemia is a subtype of ALL, which is characterized by
chromosomal translocation leading to Myc gene expression under the
control of immunoglobulin heavy chain or light chain promoters. Myc
oncogenes are usually highly expressed in human T-ALL(Erikson et al.,
1986). Under the control of the IgG heavy chain promoter, the mouse Myc
gene produces transgenic mice that mimic the clinically seen
t(8;14),most of the mice suffer from B-cell lymphoma/leukemia(Harris,
Pinkert, Crawford, Langdon, Brinster & Adams, 1988).
Researchers established three Myc transgenic mouse models. According to
the level of Myc, the tumor phenotypes of Myc mice are different, with
high expression leading to rapid-onset T-cell lymphoma, low expression
leading to late-onset myeloid tumors, and moderate expression levels
producing both tumor types(Campbell, Vandenberg, Anstee, Hurlin & Cory,
2017). Later, analyzed the gene expression and function of senescent and
non-senescent B-cell lymphomas in Eμ-Myc transgenic mice, researchers
found that previously senescent cells in vivo presented a higher
tumor initiation potential. It is worth noting that in p53-regulated ALL
and AML models, temporary strengthening of senescence can reprogram
non-stem bulk leukemia cells into self-renewing, leukemia-initiated stem
cells. These findings have far-reaching implications for cancer
treatment(Milanovic et al., 2018). Recently, in order to analyze the
important role of the microenvironment in regulating human AML
population dynamics, researchers investigated the effects of oncogene
(c-Myc) and exposure to cytokines such as IL3, GM-CSF and SCF on human
AML cells in immunodeficient mice. This finding emphasized the key role
these cytokines play in activating normally differentiated human
hematopoietic cells(Bulaeva et al., 2020). The leukemia induced by these
methods have rapid and powerful reproducibility, which provides a useful
and powerful platform for testing and evaluating new treatment
medication in human acute leukemia.