Terminal differentiation to mature neutrophils and eosinophils in suspension culture of the blast progenitors in acute myeloblastic leukemia.

The blasts obtained from three freshly diagnosed acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) patients were cultured in suspension to determine whether leukemic blast progenitors can indeed differentiate to form mature granulocytes. One patient was AML M2. The other two patients were bilineal and biphenotypic leukemia, respectively. Media conditioned by human bladder carcinoma line 5637 (5637-CM) or recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) was added to stimulate growth. In suspension, clonogenic cells grew for 1-3 weeks in two patients, while they did not increase in one patient. After repeated subculture, cells of blast morphology decreased in percentage and polymorphonuclear neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocyte-macrophages appeared. Lymphoid cell component of the patient 2, who was diagnosed as bilineal leukemia by dual-color immunofluorescence analysis, decreased in number after suspension culture and cells of myeloid phenotype became dominant. The findings show that clonogenic blast progenitors can renew themselves and can also undergo terminal differentiation to mature end cells.