Role of SHP2 for FLT3-dependent proliferation and transformation in 32D cells.

Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is a class III receptor tyrosine kinase, which plays a role in proliferation and differentiation of B-cell progenitors, myelomonocytic and dendritic cells, as well as in the maintenance of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (reviewed in Stirewalt and Radich,1and Schmidt-Arras et al.2). Recently, FLT3 has received much attention as an important oncoprotein. Mutations in FLT3 that lead to constitutive activation are among the most common molecular lesions found in acute myeloid leukemia.3 The most prevalent type of mutations result in internal tandem duplications (ITD) of amino-acid stretches in the juxtamembrane domain of FLT3. FLT3-ITD is constitutively a…