CFU-C abnormalities and cytochemical defects in bone marrow of adult patients during remission of acute leukemia.
Twenty-three adult patients in complete remission (CR) from acute leukemia were investigated for the steady-state bone marrow (BM) CFU-C concentration and the cytochemical findings of neutrophils and monocytes. There was considerable variation in CFU-C concentrations among patients. Patients with abnormality high or low values tended to relapse earlier. Repeated assays revealed constant CFU-C values in individual long-term cases of remission (4 cases). One case of M4 (myelomonocytic) and the case of M5b (monocytic) leukemia revealed a complete lack of nonspecific esterase activity in CR monocytes as well as initial leukemic promonocytes; they also showed abnormally high or low concentrations of CFU-C and relapsed early. This finding suggests that hematopoiesis in CR bone marrow occurs from abnormal stem cells common to initial, acute leukemic clones in such cases.
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D005260:Female; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology; D012008:Recurrence
D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases; C021487:butyrylesterase