Dynamics of leukemic and normal stem cells in leukemic RFM mice.

RFM mice spontaneously develop a myelogenous leukemia that is transplantable into nonleukemic RFM mice. On transplantation, hemopoietic stem cells from leukemic mice (L-CFU-S) will seed in the spleen and grow as discrete colonies, as will hemopoietic stem cells from normal mice (N-CFU-S). As the leukemic cells used in these experiments have 39 chromosomes and normal murine cells have 40, it has been possible to estimate the numbers of N-CFU-S and L-CFU-S in RFM mice at weekly intervals after these mice had been given i.v. injections of 10(6) leukemic spleen cells (spleen cells from preterminal leukemic mice). At each study time, splenic weights, peripheral blood counts, and nucleated cell counts and colony forming units (CFU-S) of marrow, spleen, and blood were assayed. The karyotypes of dividing cells from and the histology of the resultant spleen colonies were also studied. Two weeks after the injection of leukemic spleen cells, the number of CFU-S in the marrow had increased to 3 to 10 times normal, that in the spleen to 100 times normal, and that in the blood was markedly increased. Three weeks after injection, the number of CFU-S in the marrow fell from the peak level at 2 weeks, the number in the spleen rose modestly, and the number in the blood continued to be markedly increased. A normal distribution of erythroid, myeloid, and megakaryocytic colonies was obtained from CFU-S assayed 1 week after injection of leukemic spleen cells, but from CFU-S assayed 2 or 3 weeks after injection of leukemic spleen cells, the colonies formed were comprised almost exclusively of myeloid cells. From spleen colonies formed from marrow or spleen cells obtained 1 week after the injection of leukemic spleen cells, all karyotypes contained 40 chromosomes, whereas from spleen colonies formed from marrow or spleen cells obtained 2 or 3 weeks after injection of spleen cells, almost all karyotypes contained 39 chromosomes. In contrast, most of the karyotypes found in spleen colonies formed from the injection of blood cells even 3 weeks after injection of leukemic spleen cells contained 40 chromosomes. All colonies containing cells with 39 chromosomes, leukemic colonies, contained only myeloid cells. We conclude that L-CFU-S differentiate only into the myeloid series. Early in the course of the disease there is an increase in both N-CFU-S and L-CFU-S in the spleen and marrow. As the disease progresses, the numbers of N-CFU-S in both spleen and marrow decline and, during the final week of the illness, the number of L-CFU-S in the marrow declines. The CFU-S in the peripheral blood are predominantly of normal type, even late in the disease when N-CFU-S are rare in the spleen and marrow.