title: In vitro drug sensitivity of normal peripheral blood lymphocytes and childhood leukaemic cells from bone marrow and peripheral blood.
abstract: In vitro drug sensitivity of leukaemic cells might be influenced by the contamination of such a sample with non-malignant cells and the sample source. To study this, sensitivity of normal peripheral blood (PB) lymphocytes to a number of cytostatic drugs was assessed with the MTT assay. We compared this sensitivity with the drug sensitivity of leukaemic cells of 38 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. We also studied a possible differential sensitivity of leukaemic cells from bone marrow (BM) and PB. The following drugs were used: Prednisolone, dexamethasone, 6-mercaptopurine, 6-thioguanine, cytosine arabinoside, vincristine, vindesine, daunorubicin, doxorubicin, mafosfamide (Maf), 4-hydroperoxy-ifosfamide, teniposide, mitoxantrone, L-asparaginase, methotrexate and mustine. Normal PB lymphocytes were significantly more resistant to all drugs tested, except to Maf. Leukaemic BM and PB cells from 38 patients (unpaired samples) showed no significant differences in sensitivity to any of the drugs. Moreover, in 11 of 12 children with acute leukaemia of whom we investigated simultaneously obtained BM and PB (paired samples), their leukaemic BM and PB cells showed comparable drug sensitivity profiles. In one patient the BM cells were more sensitive to most drugs than those from the PB, but the actual differences in sensitivity were small. We conclude that the contamination of a leukaemic sample with normal PB lymphocytes will influence the results of the MTT assay. The source of the leukaemic sample, BM or PB, does not significantly influence the assay results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Kaspers
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pieters
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Van Zantwijk
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: De Laat
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: De Waal
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Van Wering
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Veerman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000473:pathology*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology*; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents