A comparative study of bone marrow and peripheral blood CD34+ myeloblasts in acute myeloid leukaemia

• Published in: British journal of haematology Vol. 144; no. 4; pp. 484 - 491
• Main Authors: Cheung, Alice M. S., Chow, Howard C. H., Liang, Raymond, Leung, Anskar Y. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2009; Blackwell
• Subjects: acute myeloid leukaemia; Adult; Aged; Animals; Antigens, CD34 - analysis; Antigens, Neoplasm - analysis; Biological and medical sciences; bone marrow; Bone Marrow Cells - physiology; engraftment; Female; Gene Expression Profiling - methods; Graft Survival; Granulocyte Precursor Cells - physiology; Hematologic and hematopoietic diseases; homing; Humans; Immunophenotyping; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute - blood; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute - pathology; Leukemias. Malignant lymphomas. Malignant reticulosis. Myelofibrosis; Male; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, SCID; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Transplantation; peripheral blood; Prospective Studies; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Transplantation, Heterologous; Acute myelogenous leukemia; Hematology; Stem cell; Hematopoietic cell; Malignant hemopathy; peripheral blood; Cell subpopulation; Blood; Myeloblast; acute myeloid leukaemia; Bone marrow; Engraftment; Homing phenomenon; homing; Comparative study; Cancer
• ISSN: 0007-1048; 1365-2141
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2141.2008.07431.x

Summary To examine the differences between primitive bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) myeloblasts in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), we compared CD34+ myeloblasts of paired BM and PB samples from 14 AML patients in terms of surface phenotype, homing and engraftment in a xenogeneic transplantation model, and gene expression, based on microarray studies and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. While there was no significant difference in surface phenotypes between these two populations, in vivo assay showed significantly better homing potential of PB CD34+ cells than BM CD34+ cells. Significant correlation between homing and engraftment in AML samples was also noted. In addition, gene expression profiling of CD34+ cells from five paired BM and PB leukaemic samples showed that genes involved in G‐protein and prostaglandin signalling, chemotaxis and stress response, cell proliferation and apoptosis were down‐regulated in PB CD34+ myeloblasts. These data suggested that circulating primitive myeloblasts in AML are functionally different from those residing in the marrow compartment, and such differences may be partly regulated by the BM microenvironment.