Studies of Leukemic Blast Progenitors from Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia Patients in Viscid Methylcellulose Culture and Liquid Suspension Culture

Abstract

Leukemic blast progenitors from acute leukemia patients are characterized as stem cells; they proliferate for differentiation or undergo self-renewal. Two ways are now available for the studies of leukemic blast progenitors in vitro. One is methylcellulose culture method, and the other is liquid suspension culture system. Leukemic blast progenitors make colonies in the former method, which is important as a clonogenic assay. Leukemic balst progenitors show exponential growth in the latter method. The exponential growth is based on the self-renewal of the progenitors. Thus, suspension culture is useful as a method not only maintaining leukemic blast progenitors for a long-term but also studying self-renewal events. In these methods, the growth patterns and chemosensitivity of blast progenitors are studied. An approach to developing more effective treatment strategies for acute leukemia may be expected from these studies.