Signaling between leukemia cells and nonhematopoietic cells in the bone marrow microenvironment contributes to leukemia cell growth and survival. This complicated extrinsic mechanism of chemotherapy resistance relies on a number of pathways and factors, some of which have yet to be determined. Research on cell-cell crosstalk the bone marrow microenvironment in acute leukemia was presented at the 2016 annual Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia (TACL) investigator meeting. This review summarizes the mini-symposium proceedings and focuses on chemokine signaling via the cell surface receptor CXCR4, adhesion molecule signaling via integrin α4, and crosstalk between leukemia cells and the bone marrow microenvironment that is mediated through extracellular vesicles.
Keywords: Bone marrow microenvironment; CXCR4; extracellular vesicles; integrin; leukemia; pediatric.