Abstract
A 53-year-old male with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) had been treated with prednisolone (PSL) since December 1975, and his hemoglobin level was 12.5 g/dl at the end of March 1976. At the beginning of April 1976, the patient developed hemoglobinuria with a sudden drop of hemoglobin level down to 5.0 g/dl.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (P-MNCs) from this patient at the stage of hemolytic attack markedly stimulated the proliferation of erythroid precursors (CFU-E) from the normal human bone marrow in vitro. This stimulatory effect of P-MNCs on CFU-E colony formation subsided when hemolysis ameliorated in this patient after treatment with an increased dose of PSL.
The effect of P-MNCs on CFU-E colony formation of the normal human bone marrow in vitro was also investigated in the other 5 patients with AIHA and in 9 patients with non-immunological hemolytic anemia consisting of 5 hereditary spherocytosis, 3 paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and 1 aplastic anemia-PNH syndrome. In none of these 14 patients, P-MNCs markedly stimulated normal CFU-E colony formation.
These observations suggest that P-MNCs may enhance CFU-E proliferation in certain conditions such as severe hemolysis in AIHA.
