Glucose transport regulation by p210 Bcr-Abl in a chronic myeloid leukaemia model

The regulation of nutrient transport by both cytokines and oncogenes has been linked to haemopoietic cell survival. In this study, we found that activation of Bcr-Abl protein tyrosine kinase was associated with the stimulation of glucose transport in the multipotent haemopoietic cell line FDCP-mix, a cell model for chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Bcr-Abl upregulation of glucose transport was mediated by phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase. The observation that Bcr-Abl can regulate glucose transport in a CML cell model raises the possibility that glucose transport regulation may have a role to play in the aberrant survival of stem cells in the chronic phase of CML.