title: Biologic characteristics of patients with hypocellular myelodysplastic syndromes.
abstract: Rates of proliferation and apoptosis as well as expression of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) and the number of macrophages were measured in bone marrow (BM) biopsies of 33 patients who presented with hypocellular (cellularity < 30%) myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Results showed that 2/3 of the patients had high apoptosis, high cytokine levels and large number of macrophages in their biopsies while 1/3 did not. Apoptosis and TNF-alpha levels were directly related (r = 0.583, P = 0.003, n = 24) as was apoptosis and the degree of anemia (P = 0.033, n = 18). A subgroup of patients with abnormalities of chromosomes 5 or 7 had higher platelets (P = 0.026) and higher apoptosis (P = 0.038) when compared with the rest of the group. Eight patients had no evidence of apoptosis and almost no detectable TNF-alpha in their biopsies. We conclude that within the hypocellular variant of MDS, there may be two distinct sub-groups of patients, one who present with high cytokine-mediated intramedullary apoptosis and the other who may be better characterized as having a stem-cell failure defect since they showed no evidence of apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Rush Cancer Institute, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qawi
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mundle
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shetty
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mativi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Allampallam
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lisak
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Loew
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Venugopal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gezer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rifkin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raza
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017209:Apoptosis; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D007621:Karyotyping; D008264:Macrophages / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016196:S Phase
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines