In vivo production of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells in relation to ploidy and immunological subtype.
Eighteen pretreatment cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children were investigated by quantitative autoradiography in order to determine the labeling index (LI) as well as the DNA synthesis time (ts). The ploidy of the leukemic blasts was evaluated by Feulgen-microphotometry. The group consisted of 12 cases expressing the common ALL (CALL) antigen only, while 6 showed varying degrees of development along the T-cell axis. The latter subgroup was taken together and termed T-ALL for the sake of simplicity. By dividing LI by ts the fractional birth rate (FBR) was derived representing the percentage of the total leukemic cell mass newly formed per unit of time. The present study confirms a previous investigation in which a higher LI was detected in association with hyperdiploidy. It shows that ts is simultaneously prolonged, while the DNA synthesis rate remains unchanged. This proves that in hyperdiploid cases the longer ts is caused by a larger amount of DNA to be synthesized. The FBR is the same for eu- and hyperdiploid, as well as for CALL and T-ALL cases, and there is no correlation between the FBR and the white blood cell count. So far, ALL is the only type of leukemia in which a prolongation of ts has been demonstrated in comparison to normal human lymphatic cells. This prolongation is not caused primarily by differences in ploidy. The type of growth is accumulative, since the relative rate of cell production is lower than normal. As a finding of practical importance, the labeling index is shown to correlate quite closely with the FBR. In this cell system the LI can thus be used as a parameter reflecting the rate of relative cell production.
D000293:Adolescent; D000782:Aneuploidy; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002455:Cell Division; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004261:DNA Replication; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007621:Karyotyping; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000473:pathology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology