Objective To investigate the chemotherapeaties sensitivity and expression of bcl-2, bcl-xL and bax of Jurkat cells co-cultured with bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) isolated and cultured from leukemia patients. Methods BMSC were isolated and cultured from leukemia patients routinely. To construct the co-cultured model, Jurkat cells were co-cultured with of the irradiated layer BMSC by 60Co and observed the model with scanning electron microscope. The Jurkat cells suspension-cultured were used as control. The apoptosis and IC50 were detected by the FACS can machine and MTT, respectively. The expression of bcl-2,bcl-xL and bax in Jurkat cells was detected by Western blotting. Results We found that the Jurkat cells in the model showed a decreased sensitivity to DNR, IC50 values for leukemic BMSC and nonadhered contol were of 2.30 μmol/L and 0.45 μmol/L, respectively. Moreover, Jurkat cells adhered to BMSC have a survival advantage over suspended cells following DNR exposure for 24 h, apoptosis percentages for leukemic BMSC group and nonadhered controls were of (6.05±0.54)% and (25.74±6.15)%, respectively. As compared with controls, leukemic BMSC group had significant difference in apoptosis percentages (P <0.01). The expression of bcl-2 in Jurkat cells was up-regnlated when adhered to BMSC for 4 h and the higher expression emerged after adhering for 24 h and 48 h. No marked change of bcl-xL and bax expressions were observed in the adhered Jurkat cells. Conclusion The adhered-culture with bone marrow stromal cells isolated from leukemia patients could make the leukemia cells acquire drug resistance, which was associated with the up-regulated expression of bcl-2 in the leukemia cells.