Additionally, knockdown of Hlf or Hoxa9 results in a slight increase in CD11b+ cells after 9 days (unpaired t-test, P<0.01), accompanied by a brief concordant decrease in cKit expression in shHoxa9 cells, providing evidence for a role of HOXA9 in the characteristic myeloid differentiation block seen in MN1 leukemia (Figure 3b). Here, ITGAM is linked to leukemia.