Unbiased analysis of NUP98-KDM5A-induced murine leukemia reveals phenotypic heterogeneity recapitulating human disease subtypes

NUP98-KDM5A (NK5) is an oncogenic fusion protein implicated in the development of several types of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in humans, including rare pediatric acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL). NK5 expression in murine hematopoietic progenitor cells can induce AML in mice. However, the limited number of animals and phenotypic markers used in previous studies preclude the full characterization of the AML subtypes that develop. We used NK5-transduced hematopoietic progenitor cells from murine fetal liver to generate a large cohort of mice. We then assessed the expression of a panel of myeloid markers to characterize the lineage of leukemic blasts using flow cytometry. Finally, we used bioinformatic tools to perform an unbiased analysis of mouse-to-mouse heterogeneity in leukemic cellular phenotypes. We identified phenotypically distinct subgroups among the NK5 leukemias that were predominantly segregated based on the expression of the AMKL-associated marker CD41. Our findings indicate that NK5 expression in fetal liver cells causes different types of leukemia similar in proportion to that observed in pediatric patients. The heterogeneity and mixed phenotypes observed might explain the difficulty in accurately diagnosing leukemia in some patients carrying the NK5 fusion. In addition, this approach may enable the identification of the molecular or cellular basis of the diverse NK5-driven AML types.