Summary
We report a case with acute undifferentiated leukemia whose leukemic blasts lacked morphological, cytochemical and immunological features of lymphoid or myeloid differentiation. The in vitro culture study defined her leukemia as of monocytic origin. Her marrow blasts underwent monocytic differentiation with strong nonspecific esterase activity when cultured in a liquid system with human placental conditioned medium. The semisolid agar culture showed an AML-type growth pattern. The present study indicates that in vitro culture study can be used as a supplement to improve the classification of certain unclassifiable leukemias.
References
Bradstock KF, Hoffbrand AV, Ganeshaguru K, Llewellin P, Patterson K, Wonke B, Prentice AG, Bennett M, Pizzolo G, Bollum FJ, Janossy G (1981) Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase expression in acute non-lymphoid leukemia: an analysis by immunofluorescence. Br J Haematol 47: 133–143
Bradstock KF, Hewson J, Kerr A, Kabral A, Lee CH, Hughes WG (1983) Expression of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase in malignant myeloblasts. Am J Clin Pathol 80: 800–805
Burgess AW, Wilson EMA, Metcalf D (1977) Stimulation by human placental conditioned medium of hemopoietic colony formation by human marrow cells. Blood 49: 573–583
Elias L, Greenberg P (1977) Divergent patterns of marrow cell suspension culture growth in the myeloid leukemias: Correlation of in vitro findings with clinical features. Blood 50: 263–274
Gordon DS, Hutton JJ, Smalley RV, Meyer LM, Vogler WR (1978) Terminal Deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), cytochemistry and membrane receptors in adult acute leukemia. Blood 52: 1079–1088
Greenberg PL (1980) Clinical relevance of in vitro study of granulopoiesis. Scand J Haematol 25: 369–381
Hayhoe FGJ, Quaglino D (1980) Haematological cytochemistry. Churchill-Livingstone, New York
Li CY, Lam KW, Yam LT (1973) Esterases in human leukocytes. J Histochem Cytochem 21: 1–12
Mertelsmann R, Moore MAS, Broxmeyer HE, Cirrincione C, Clarkson B (1981) Diagnostic and prognostic significance of the CFU-C assay in acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer Res 41: 4844–4848
Moore MAS (1975) Marrow culture — a new approach to classification of leukemias. Blood Cell 1: 149–158
Moore MAS, Spitzer G, Williams N, Metcalf D, Buckley J (1974) Agar culture studies in 127 cases of untreated acute leukemia: The prognostic value of reclassification of leukemia according to in vitro growth characteristics. Blood 44: 1–18
Shih LY, Chang CY (1985) Marrow culture studies in adult acute myeloid leukemia at diagnosis and during complete remission. Blut 50: 225–232
Spitzer G, Verma DS, Dicke KA, McCredie KB (1978) Culture studies in vitro in human leukemia. Semin Hematol 15: 352–378
Srivastava BIS, Khan SA, Henderson ES (1976) High terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase activity in acute myelogenous leukemia. Cancer Res 36: 3847–3850
Steele AA, Sensenbrenner LL, Young MG (1977) Growth and differentiation of normal and leukemic human bone marrow cells cultured in diffusion chambers. Exp Hematol 5: 199–210
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shih, LY. Identification of monocytic nature in acute undifferentiated leukemia by in vitro marrow culture study. Blut 52, 323–326 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320796
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320796