Leucine incorporation into leukaemic blast cells.

The incorporation of 3H-leucine as an indicator of protein synthesis has been studied of blast cells in acute leukaemia and of proliferative normal bone marrow cells. The results demonstrate a significantly higher 3H-leucine incorporation into normal immature cells as compared to leukaemic myeloblasts, also 3H-leucine labelling of lymphoblasts was significantly lower than both the values found in acute leukaemia and normals. Higher protein synthesis was found correlated to the degree of cell immaturity. No significant correlation between 3H-leucine labelled and 3H-thymidine labelled leukaemic blast cells was achieved. A marked decrease in 3H-leucine incorporation by puromycin was demonstrated in three patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.