Dwjm-Adherence Induces Chemotherapy Resistance In Primary Acute Myeloid Leukemia By Altering Leukemia Cell Metabolism

Introduction: In previous work, we have demonstrated that culturing leukemia cell lines in decellularized Wharton's jelly (WJ) matrix (DWJM), the gelatinous material in umbilical cord tissues, resulted in chemotherapy resistance. To reduce the variability in the biochemical composition between different parts of the WJ matrix and to optimize our 3-dimensional (3D) DWJM-based extracellular matrix (ECM) model for in vitro culture of primary AML cells, we fabricated DWJM-derived porous disks with uniform architecture and pore-size by homogenization followed by lyophilization of human DWJM. Herein, we examine whether DWJM disks support primary leukemia cells and result in chemotherapy resistance.