agar and Hematologic-Diseases

The authors offer a method for cultivating trepanobiopsies in the agar drop-liquid medium system to measure the intramedullary colony-stimulating activity (CSA) in patients with different pathological conditions of the blood system. In patients with chronic idiopathic neutropenia and aplastic anemia, the CSA of the whole bone marrow tissue ranges within normal. In patients with recurrent acute myelo- and leukoblastic leukemias, the CSA of trepanobiopsies is lowered. During a remission, in these patients and in those with hemopoietic dysplasia the CSA of the whole bone marrow tissue ranges within normal. There is a positive correlation between the CSA of trepanobiopsies and the number of mature granulocytes in the peripheral blood of patients with acute myeloleukemia and lymphoblastic leukemias and a negative correlation between the CSA and the number of blast cells in the blood and bone marrow of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It has been thus shown that intramedullary level of the CSA plays a great part in regulation of granulomonocytopoiesis in health and different pathological conditions. It is assumed that stromal elements of the bone marrow may release a factor that is triggered by the colony-stimulating factor or by this factor-synthesizing cells.

Topics: Agar; Bone Marrow; Colony-Forming Units Assay; Colony-Stimulating Factors; Culture Media; Granulocytes; Hematologic Diseases; Humans; In Vitro Techniques; Monocytes

The authors studied the effect of medullary fibroblasts on granulomonocytopoiesis in a semi-solid agar gel. Seventy-three untreated patients with the blood system diseases and 18 hematologically healthy subjects were entered into the study. The medium conditioned with fibroblasts and fibroblasts themselves are capable of stimulating granulomonocytopoiesis. In addition, fibroblasts can exert an inhibitory effect on granulomonocytopoiesis, with the degree of this effect being dependent on the agar layer thickness. Patients with chronic lympholeukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia showed a decrease in the stimulating activity of fibroblasts, whereas in patients with chronic myeloleukemia, that activity was elevated. In patients with neutropenic conditions, the stimulating activity of fibroblasts depended on a factor that produced neutropenia. The role of the alterations in question in the pathogenesis of the blood system diseases and other possible influences of fibroblasts on myelopoiesis are discussed.

Topics: Agar; Bone Marrow; Colony-Forming Units Assay; Culture Media; Fibroblasts; Hematologic Diseases; Hematopoiesis; Hematopoietic Stem Cells; Humans; In Vitro Techniques