抄録
The in vitro colony forming capacity of bone marrow and the colony stimulating activity (CSA) of peripheral white blood cells (WBC) were studied in 11 children with aplastic anemia and in 30 children with normal bone marrow as the control.
The culture was carried out according to the method of Robinson and Pike. To assay CSA, normal bone marrow cells were used as the target cells.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) In children with normal bone marrow, the colony counts per 2×105 cells ranged from 100 to 450 with the average count of 218±100; the majority of colonies consisted of more than 500 cells at 10-14 days of cultivation.
2) In children with aplastic anemia, the colony counts reduced remarkably; 7 out of 10 non-treated patients had no colony and only 3 patients had a few colonies. In eleven treated patients, the colonies with the average count of 6±6 were formed. Most of the colonies consisted of 200 or less cells.
3) The colony stimulating activity in aplastic anemia decreased in almost all patients. Mainly, the decrease of compact colony and relative increase of loose colony were observed on the patients' WBC feeder layers.
4) There was a significant correlation between WBC and CSA.
These results suggested that there would be a decrease of the colony forming cell (CFC) in the bone marrow, a defect of intrinsic proliferative ability of CFC in children with aplastic anemia. Furthermore, an abnormality of CSA producing cells was suggested.
