Differential effect of leukaemogenic tyrosine kinases on cell motility is governed by subcellular localisation

The chemokine, stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) is a crucial regulator of stem cell homing and tethering, and potentiation of this pathway in leukaemias may contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease. A key second messenger in SDF-1 signal/response coupling is phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-triphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P₃]. SDF-1 elevated PtdIns(3,4,5)P₃ levels markedly in the multipotent FDCP-mix stem cell line. Similarly, transfection with BCR/ABL or TEL/PDGFRβ leukaemogenic tyrosine kinases chronically elevated PtdIns(3,4,5)P₃ levels. However, whilst an SDF-1 chemotactic response was observed in TEL/PDGFRβ-transfected cells, in BCR/ABL cells this was markedly decreased, which was not due to Ras-pathway activation. Thus, multipotent cells can respond to SDF-1, despite chronic increases in this second messenger indicating that a discrete pool of SDF-1-stimulated PtdIns(3,4,5)P₃ production drives the chemotactic response. To discern the mechanism for the differential effects of these oncogenes we considered subcellular localisation. As TEL/PDGFRβ has a cytosolic location whilst BCR/ABL associates with actin, we removed the actin-binding domain from BCR/ABL. We observed relocation of BCR/ABL to the cytosol and increased SDF-1 responses. We conclude that the localisation of BCR/ABL to the cytoskeleton is essential for effects on motility and moderating SDF-1 responses is not essential in tyrosine kinase-mediated leukaemic transformation.