Experimental therapy of B-cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphonas.

1 ABSTRACT B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B-NHL) represent the most common mature lymphoproliferative diseases. B-NHL arise at different stages of B-cell development and represent their malignant counterpart. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) are aggressive types of B-NHLs. Deregulation of cell cycle control, inhibition of apoptosis or abnormal DNA damage response play a key role in the pathogenesis of DLBCL and MCL. Aberrant activation of several signaling pathways that further promote survival, cell proliferation or affect the tumor microenvironment have been recently recognized. Increased understanding of the oncogenic mechanisms implicated in pathogenesis of B-NHL lead to development of novel agents that target the oncogenic drivers of distinct lymphoma subtypes. MCL is an aggressive subtype of B-NHL associated with poor prognosis. In vivo models of human MCL for experimental therapy are however scarce. We established and characterized several mouse models of human MCL by xenotransplantation of either primary cells or established cell lines into immunodeficient mice (publication no 1). We demonstrated that engrafted MCL cells displayed complex changes of gene expression profile, phenotype and sensitivity to cytotoxic agents compared to the original in vitro growing..