In previous studies we noted that transplanted ALL cells and Artemis-deficient (pre-leukemic) pre-B cells led to IL7 and CXCL12 downregulation in MSCs (Fistonich et al., 2018), which could explain the negative impact of ALL in non-malignant lymphopoiesis. Here, CXCL12 is linked to acute lymphoblastic leukemia.