Childhood erythroleukemia. Studies on pathogenesis using colony assays.

Marrow hematopoiesis was examined in two infants with erythroleukemia (EL) using cell culture colony assays. At diagnosis, marrow from both yielded normal to increased numbers of granulocytic colonies (CFU-C), erythroid bursts (BFU-E), and mixed colonies (CFU-GEMM), which contrasted sharply with the reduced growth in eight other newly diagnosed patients with acute leukemia. BFU-E proliferation and hemoglobinization proceeded normally in culture and was entirely erythropoietin-dependent. CFU-C colony cellular composition showed normal granulopoiesis in various stages of development. Despite low numbers of morphologically recognizable blasts in the aspirates, they were readily identified in a blast colony assay because of their high plating efficiency and high index of self-renewal on replating. Blast cells in all cultures had myeloblastic morphology, were peroxidase positive, and expressed the granulocytic-specific My-1 antigen. Monosomy 7 was seen in fresh and cultured blast cells but not in lymphocytes, indicating a clonal proliferation. After chemotherapy-induced remission, blast colonies and monosomy 7 could no longer be detected. It appears that the integrity and function of the normal hematopoietic progenitor pool were preserved in these patients with EL. The abnormal myeloblastic proliferation was expressed actively in colony assays and was useful diagnostically in these cases because marrow morphology was nondiagnostic. In these patients, EL seems to be a misnomer since the findings are suggestive of acute myeloblastic leukemia with secondary erythroid and granulocytic hyperplasia.