PHA-blastogenesis in relationship to the cell-type and source in acute leukemia

The PHA-responsiveness in cell-culture of mononuclear cells obtained in acute leukemia from different sources, such as blood, bone marrow, lymph-nodes, leukemic pleural effusion and spinal fluid were investigated. The peripheral blood lymphocytes of all but 2 of 28 untreated patients showed extents of blastogenesis from 48 to 90%. The bone-marrow cells of 18 of the 28 patients gave high extents of blast-like cells (52 to 88%) in 5. In fact, the marrow cells of 9 patients showed blast extents only from 1 to 14%, whereas the remaining 4 patients had no marrow-cell transformation at all. Also the lymphocytes from lymph-nodes of 2 patients show low extents of blastogenesis (8.5–12.3%). Again, the mononuclear cells obtained from the spinal fluid in 7 patients affected by meningeal leukemia, and from the pleural effusion in 1 patient did not undergo any blastic transformation. The question arises whether the PHA-responsive cells from the acute leukemia peripheral blood are normal immuno-competent lymphocytes circulating in the blood, independent from the cell type of leukemia. As a consequence, it comes up whether the bone-marrow cells are PHA-responsive in the lymphocytic type of acute leukemia and PHA-nonresponsive in other cell-types of leukemia (myelo-monocytic). Thus, the PHA-cell culture of both the peripheral blood and the bone-marrow cells could aid in recognizing the cell types of leukemia one is dealing with.