Chronic exposure to benzene is known to damage the bm resulting in
development of different types of leukemia. extrinsic signaling cues in the microenvironment of
acute myelogenous leukemia (aml) contribute to disease progression and therapy resistance .
mesenchymal stem cells derived from adult bone marrow (bm-mscs), providing both cell sources
for connective tissues and the control of hematopoiesis via secretion important elements of
hematopoietic niche. niches are local tissue microenvironments that maintain and regulate stem
cells. previous studies have showed that benzene is one of the important risk factors for aml.
this study aimed to evaluate the low doses of benzene on the expression levels of some cancer
related genes including cxcl12 and kitlg in mscs.
Methods
Mscs obtained from a healthy volunteer and cultured in the proper
medium. after confirmation of mscs with standard methods, cells were exposed to 5 and 10 mm
of benzene and the expression of kitlg and cxcl12 genes evaluated by real time pcr method.
Results
The results indicate that increased expression of kitlg and cxcl12 genes specifically
under 5 mm concentration of benzene.
Conclusion
The scf (kitlg)-kit signaling pathways and the cxcl12-cxcl4 axis both are
important factors for the bone marrow niche. according to this study and based on the specific
role of these genes in cancer and the control of niche, benzene is one of the main factors of
carcinogenesis even in the low doses. thus, hematopoietic niche and eventually leukemia are
caused by changes in the expression of these genes.
