Intact apoptosis signaling in pediatric ALL is associated with patient outcome, low expression of anti-apoptotic molecules and long NOD/SCID engraftment

We recently reported the importance of intact apoptosis signaling for treatment response in pediatric ALL and AML analyzing two key apoptogenic events, cytochrome c release and caspase-3 activation. In a NOD/SCID/huALL xenograft model we found that rapid in vivo leukemia growth (Time to leukemia (TTL) short) in mice determines poor patient outcome. In this study we investigated apoptosis signaling and expression of apoptosis regulating molecules in ALL xenograft cells. Correlation of cytochrome c release and caspase-3 activation indicating proficient apoptosis signaling was only present in xenografts from patien…