Increase of Proliferative Activity of Leukaemic Blast Cells from Human Peripheral Blood in Liquid Culture

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Abstract
The proliferative behavior of leukemic blast cells from the peripheral blood of 12 patients with acute leukemia was investigated in short term liquid culture. In 3 cases of AML [acute myelogenous leukemia] an increase of the blast cell number was observed exceeding the initial value, whereas in 9 other cases the cell number decreased more or less rapidly. In 9 of these patients the proliferation kinetics of the cultured leukemic blast cells were studied with 3H-thymidine labeling. In all these cases the labeling index increased during the 1st days of culture, in 3 cases to values of 48, 45 and 38% on day 3. Only in 5 cases did an absolute increase of the blast cells incorporating 3H-thymidine occur. Here the doubling times of the proliferating leukemic blast cells were estimated to be 12, 13, 14, 28 and 55 h. Since a doubling time of 12-14 h seems to be too short to be explained only by exponential growth of the initially proliferating cells leukemic blast cells in a G0- or long G1-phase were present in the peripheral blood of these patients and these entered the cell cycle during liquid culture.