ABSTRACT
Objectives To evaluate the count of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) of acute leukemia (AL) patients and explore its clinical significance.Methods EPCs were detected by flow cytometry procedures in 43 AL patients and in 10 benign hematologic patients as control group.Results The absolute counts of EPCs in AL patients before the treatment [(119.46± 72.23)/μl in BM and (13.69±8.26)/pl in PB] were significantly higher than those in control group [(23.21 ± 12.59)/pl in BM and (1.86±1.18)/μl in PB] (P ＜ 0.01).The absolute counts of EPCs were significandy higher in BM than those in BP in AL patients before the treatment (P ＜ 0.001).After the treatment, the absolute counts of EPCs in no remission (NR) group [(110.02±67.28)/μl in BM and (10.04±9.51)/μ1 in PB] were significantly higher than those in control group (P ＜ 0.05), while the counts of EPCs in complete remission (CR) group were no significant difference compared with those in control group (P ＞ 0.05).After the treatment ,the absolute counts of EPCs both in BM and in BP of CR group [(26.32±17.44)/μl and (2.54±2.12)/μl, respectively] were significantly lower than those before treatment [(113.18±69.22)/μl and (14.45±10.76)/μl, respectively] (P ＜ 0.05), however those of NR group were no significant difference than before (P ＞ 0.05).The absolute counts of EPCs whether in PB or in BM were no significant difference between acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) (P ＞ 0.05).The absolute counts of EPCs in PB of AL had a positive correlation with β2-MG and LDH (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions EPC levels are significantly increased in BM and BP of AL patients and may correlate with disease status, response to treatment and prognosis.