NEAR-TETRAPLOID CLONES IN ACUTE-LEUKEMIA

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 61  (1) , 71-78
Abstract
Near-tetraploid clones were observed in bone marrow (BM) samples from 2 patients with acute leukemia. One case had a hypotetraploid clone (modal chromosome range, 88-90) characterized by two apparently identical 8:21 translocations and loss of both Y chromosomes as well as by other changes. As in aneuploid patients with only a single 8:21 translocation, the cytologic features in this case were characteristic of acute myeloid leukemia with maturation. The marrow of the second patient contained immature leukemic blasts indicative of acute myeloid leukemia. The abnormal clone in this patient contained 93 chromosomes with an extra small marker. In this case BM preparations were examined that were made by several different cytogenetic methods: direct and 24-h culture (with or without methotrexate synchronization). Almost no variation in the incidence of abnormal metaphase cells was found in 100 consecutive mitotic cells from each of the 3 preparations. However, in this particular case some disparity was noted between preparations with respect to the quality of diploid mitoses vs. that of near-tetraploid mitoses. This finding is discussed with regard to bias in selecting metaphase cells for banding analysis in acute leukemia in general. In both patients there was a close correlation between the incidence of polyploid mitoses observed in cytogenetic preparations and the incidence of bizarre blast cells found in BM smears on the same date.