Summary
The number of large granular lymphocytes (LGL) and the capacity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to lyse K 562 target cells in a natural killer (NK)-like fashion was evaluated in seven hairy cell leukemia (HCL) patients undergoing treatment with recombinant interferon-alpha-2 (rIFN-alpha-2). In HCL patients, whose peripheral blood showed high numbers (≧15×103/μl) of leukemic cells the number of LGL and their capacity to lyse K 562 tumor target cells were very low prior to treatment but increased significantly (p<0.05) following interferon (IFN) therapy. In patients with low numbers of hairy cells (HC) in their peripheral blood, both these parameters were higher and remained largely unaffected throughout IFN treatment. In vitro, HC proved to be completely insensitive to natural killing when tested against unstimulated and IFN-activated LGL from healthy donors. These results fail to support the concept of IFN-mediated enhancement of host antitumor actions, responsible for the favourable clinical results in HCL.
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Abbreviations
- LGL:
-
large granular lymphocytes
- NK:
-
natural killer
- HCL:
-
hairy cell leukemia
- rIFN-alpha-2:
-
human recombinant interferon-alpha-2
- IFN:
-
interferon
- HC(s):
-
hairy cell(s)
- PBMC:
-
peripheral blood mononuclear cells
- FCS:
-
fetal calf serum
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This work was supported by the Austrian funds “Zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung” project no. 5288
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Gastl, G., Aulitzky, W., Leiter, E. et al. Alpha-interferon induces remission in hairy cell leukemia without enhancement of natural killing. Blut 52, 273–279 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320790
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320790