Cell-type specific requirement for pyruvate dehydrogenase in hematopoiesis and leukemia development

SUMMARY Cancer cells have different metabolic requirements as compared to their corresponding normal tissues. This is thought to reflect metabolic reprogramming during transformation. An alternative possibility is that some metabolic requirements of cancer cells reflect a maintenance of the metabolism of the specific normal cell type from which cancer cells originate. Here, we investigate this hypothesis by comparing glucose use in normal hematopoiesis and in leukemia. T cell progenitors in the thymus were glucose avid and oxidized more glucose in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle through pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) as compared to hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) or other hematopoietic cells. PDH deletion reduced the number of double positive (DP) T cell progenitors but had no effect on HSCs, myeloid progenitors and other hematopoietic cells we examined. PDH deletion blocked the development of T cell leukemia from Pten- deficient DP progenitors, but not the development of a myeloid neoplasm from Pten- deficient HSCs or myeloid progenitors. Therefore, the requirement of glucose oxidation for leukemia development is inherited from the normal cell of origin and occurs independently of the driver genetic lesion. PDH was not required in vivo to generate acetyl-CoA or maintain levels of TCA cycle metabolites but to prevent pyruvate accumulation and to maintain glutathione levels and redox homeostasis.