Resistance to daunorubicin, imatinib, or nilotinib depends on expression levels of ABCB1 and ABCG2 in human leukemia cells.

The effect of ABCB1 (P-gp, (P-glycoprotein), MDR1) and ABCG2 (BCRP1, (breast cancer resistance protein 1)) expressions on cell resistance to daunorubicin (DRN), imatinib, and nilotinib was studied in human leukemia cells. We used a set of cells derived from a parental K562 cell line, expressing various levels of ABCB1 and ABCG2, respectively. The function of ABCB1 and ABCG2 was confirmed using calcein AM and pheophorbide A accumulation assays, respectively.