Bone marrow morphology in patients in long-term treatment with azathioprine.
The bone marrow was morphologically analysed in 25 patients receiving long-term azathioprine therapy for chronic renal diseases or after a renal transplantation. There were no significant changes within the granulopoietic or lymphopoietic part of bone marrow even after 10 years of treatment. However, there was a significant "shift to the left" within erythropoiesis as well as greater frequencies of megaloblasts and sideroblasts. A significant increase of "erythroblastic islands" may indicate an increased death rate of defective erythroblasts. The changes within erythropoiesis in some of the patients were so pronounced that the possibility of a preleukaemic condition cannot be excluded.
D001379:Azathioprine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004920:Erythropoiesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D010488:Polyarteritis Nodosa / Q000188:drug therapy
D001379:Azathioprine