Cytochemical Variants of Neutrophil Leukocyte Populations in Chronic Myelocytic Leukaemia

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Abstract
A microspectrophotometric method was used for determination of the amount of periodic acid‐Schiff reactive material (PASMa), most likely a measure of the glycogen content, in individual blood and bone marrow neutrophil leucocytes from seven cases of chronic myelocytic leukaemia (CML) and five non‐leukaemic subjects. Neutrophils from untreated CML contained low PASMa amounts as compared to neutrophils from normal subjects, while normal amounts of PASMa were found in neutrophils from CML patients in busulfan‐induced remission. Blood and bone marrow neutrophils in the same individual subject contained similar PASMa amounts whether sampled from a normal person, untreated CML (low PASMa level), polycythaemia vera (high PASMa level), or CML in complete remission (normal PASMa level). Treatment of CML with busulfan initiated earlier normalization of PASMa amounts in bone marrow neutrophils than in blood neutrophils, although similar normal PASMa amounts were found in both blood and bone marrow neutrophils in complete remission. The pattern of normalization showed that the busulfan‐induced normalization of PASMa content in CML‐neutrophils was due to action on precursor‐myeloid cells and not to direct action on mature neutrophils. The PAS‐normal cells in remission might indicate a metabolic change of the leukaemic myeloid cell population or represent a second ‘normal’ population of neutrophil leucocytes.