Circulating Haematopoietic Progenitors in Myelofibrosis

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Abstract
We studied circulating erythroid and granulocyte‐monocyte progenitors in 18 patients with idiopathic myelofibrosis and in healthy controls, using the methyl cellulose assay. 9 of the patients had been splenectomized prior to the study. The median number of circulating erythroid burst‐forming units (BFU‐E) was 8 times higher than that of the controls. 12 patients also had CFU‐E (colony‐forming unit, erythroid) in the blood. 10 patients had spontaneous BFU‐E colony formation, and 8 patients had spontaneous CFU‐E colony growth. Granulocyte‐monocyte progenitors (CFU‐GM) were increased 47 times compared to the controls. There were no differences in colony numbers between splenectomized and non‐splenectomized patients. We conclude that in myelofibrosis, circulating erythroid and granulocyte‐monocyte progenitors are usually markedly increased in number, but erythroid precursors to a lesser extent than granulocyte‐monocyte precursors. Many patients, but not all, show spontaneous erythroid colony formation.