TRAIL decoy receptors mediate resistance of acute myeloid leukemia cells to TRAIL.

Abstract

The analysis of experimental APL models (i.e., U937 cells engineered to express PML/RAR-Eo and NB4 cells) provided evidence that PML/RAR-Eo expression was associated with downmodulation of TRAIL-R1 and with resistance to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis. We suggest that AML blasts, including APL blasts, are resistant to TRAIL-mediated apoptosis, a phenomenon seemingly related to the expression of TRAIL decoy receptors on these cells. Finally, APL blasts express membrane-bound TRAIL that could confer an immunologic privilege to these cells.