1985 Volume 26 Issue 3 Pages 374-380
Bone marrow cultures were performed in 3 cases of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) and a case of blastic crisis of chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML-BC), using the method described by Minden.
Morphological and cytochemical studies including peroxidase, α-naphthyl butyrate esterase, naphthol AS-D chloroacetate esterase showed that the cells from the colonies were similar to the leukemic cells before culture.
To investigate the leukemic nature of the colonies, cytogenetic analyses were done in a single colony and in pooled colonies in 3 patients with ANLL and one with CML-BC who had marker chromosome in short term culture of the marrow. The banding analyses of the chromosomes from the colonies revealed the same abnormalities in high percentage. The cytogenetic analyses in the two cases in remission revealed that granulocytic-macrophage colonies (CFU-GM) and erythrocytic (BFU-E) colonis had normal karyotype.
It was concluded that most of the colonies consisted of the undifferentiated cells in the culture system by Minden were derived from “leukemic” stem cells.
