Correlation between serum level of soluble L‐selectin and leukocyte count in chronic myeloid and lymphocytic leukemia and during bone marrow transplantation

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Abstract
Abstract:  L‐selectin is a glycoprotein which is one of three members in a family of cell adhesion molecules called selectins. L‐selectin is present in distinct forms on both neutrophil granulocytes and lymphocytes, and it appears to play an important role in the early stages of leukocyte‐endothelial cell interaction. Activation of leukocytes leads to shedding of the extracellular part of L‐selectin which thus forms a soluble adhesion molecule, sL‐selectin, which retains functional capacity and can be detected in serum. In the present study we have developed a specific, sensitive sandwich ELISA to measure the serum level of sL‐selectin in patients with hematological and infectious disorders. Three patients with acute myeloid leukemia in remission and 1 patient with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase were followed during bone marrow transplantation and the level of sL‐selectin was found to correlate closely to the leukocyte counts with no detectable sL‐selectin during periods of severe leukopenia. In 11 patients with chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia and 13 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia the sL‐selectin level was also found to correlate closely to the leukocyte count (R = 0.98; p = 0.001 and R = 0.83; p = 0.004 respectively). One CML patient with a leukocytosis of 385 times 109/1 was found to have an sL‐selectin concentration 625 times above normal. Ten patients with acute pneumonia were evaluated at diagnosis and at the time of follow‐up 4–8 weeks later. In all patients the initial sL‐selectin level was higher than at follow‐up. However, no close correlation between sL‐selectin and leukocyte count or CRP (C‐reactive protein) at the time of diagnosis was found. In summary, we have found that the sL‐selectin level in human serum closely correlates to the leukocyte count in both CML and CLL and during bone marrow transplantation. –