Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Cell Growth and Maturation in Liquid Culture1.pdf

[CANCER RESEARCH 34, 419-423, February 1974] Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Cell Growth and Maturation in Liquid Culture1 David W. Golde,2 Lisken A. Byers, and Martin J. Cline Division of Hematology-Oncology, UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles, California 90024 [D. W. G., M. J. C.\, and Cancer Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143 [L. A. B.] SUMMARY A recently developed liquid culture technique was used to determine the proliferative and maturational character istics of leukemia cells from 7 patients with chronic mye- logenous leukemia (CML). Marrow and blood leukocytes were cultured in an in vitro diffusion chamber for up to 45 days. Proliferation was assessed by viable cell counts and thymidine-3H-labeling indices. Maturation was determined using light and electron microscopy, histochemistry, phago cytosis, and tests for cell immunoglobulin receptors. CML cultures had viable cell counts far exceeding those of nor mal marrow cultures. The maturational pattern observed with CML in the chronic phase was qualitatively similar to that seen with normal bone marrow. Cultures consisted pre dominantly of mature granulocytes and macrophages. The macrophages were found to be functionally normal and the Philadelphia chromosome was identified in culture from two patients studied. We conclude that CML in the chronic phase is characterized in vitro by increased myelopoietic capacity with the potential for normal cellular maturation. These observations are consistent with the concept that in creased cell production in CML results from an expanded committed stem cell pool. In blast transformation cellular differentiation is defective but, unlike acute myelogenous leukemia, cell proliferation remains high. INTRODUCTION CML3 is unique among the leukemias in that the disease has 2 distinct clinical phases and the Ph chromosome per mits definitive identification of the leukemic cell line (4, 5, 22). Unlike AML, CML in the chronic pha