In the family of cytokines and cytokine receptors, alternative splicing of pre-mRNA is a frequently observed process that generates different protein isoforms from a single genetic locus. The splicing-derived cytokine receptor protein isoforms are mostly soluble receptors or show alterations in their cytoplasmic domain. It is possible that receptor abnormalities or a pathological ratio of different isoforms may contribute to leukaemia by circumventing normal growth factor control or altering the balance of proliferation and differentiation. IL-7 plays a critical role in early stages of both B and T cell maturation. Moreover, it stimulates the expansion of mature T cells including anti-tumour reactive cells as well as a number of T and B cell malignancies underlining its potential importance for deregulated lymphoid proliferation and leukaemogenesis. Here, we present detailed data on the expression of the interleukin 7 receptor alpha chain (IL-7Ralpha) in leukaemic cells from 210 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and describe two novel alternatively spliced transcripts of human IL-7Ralpha coding for truncated receptor proteins which are still capable of binding IL-7. IL-7Ralpha mRNA expression was more frequent in more mature pre-B ALL [91% (30/33)] than in common [81% (81/100)] or pro-B ALL [64% (18/28)], or even in T ALL [64% (29/45)]. These results are in concordance with flow cytometric analyses on the proportion of IL-7Ralpha bearing cells among total blast cell population. Our results lead us to assume that splicing derived IL-7Ralpha isoforms play a potential role in modulating IL-7 signal transduction and might be important for the pathogenesis of leukaemia.
Copyright 2000 Academic Press.