ABSTRACT
The levels of serum and long-term bone marrow culture supernatant soluble flt-3 ligand (sFL) were determined in 54 patients with chronic idiopathic neutropenia (CIN) and 16 normal controls. Both serum and supernatant sFL levels were significantly increased in the patients compared with controls. Individual sFL values inversely correlated with the number of circulating neutrophils and the proportion of bone marrow CD34+ cells. Supernatant sFL values positively correlated with the levels of supernatant G-CSF. These findings suggest that the impaired myelopoiesis in CIN patients is accompanied by a compensatory mechanism attempting to increase the neutrophil production at the myeloid progenitor cell level.
Subject(s)
Bone Marrow Cells/metabolism , Membrane Proteins/blood , Neutropenia/metabolism , Adult , Aged , Bone Marrow Cells/pathology , Case-Control Studies , Cells, Cultured , Chronic Disease , Female , Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor/analysis , Humans , Leukocyte Count , Male , Membrane Proteins/analysis , Membrane Proteins/metabolism , Middle Aged , Neutropenia/pathology , Neutrophils/pathology , Statistics, Nonparametric , Time FactorsABSTRACT
The levels of soluble c-kit ligand (sKL), also known as Steel factor or stem cell factor, were measured in blood serum and long-term bone marrow culture supernatants of 81 patients with chronic idiopathic neutropenia (CIN) and 22 normal controls using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We found that the levels of serum and culture supernatant sKL did not differ significantly between patients and control subjects and that both serum and supernatant values of the cytokine did not correlate with the number of circulating neutrophils. Furthermore, we found that the levels of the culture supernatant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), also measured by ELISA, were significantly increased in the patients compared to controls but individual G-CSF values did not correlate with the values of supernatant sKL. These findings suggest that sKL-producing cells continuously secrete sKL and that cytokine secretion is independent of the degree of neutropenia or the levels of supernatant G-CSF in patients with CIN.
Subject(s)
Bone Marrow Cells/metabolism , Neutropenia/metabolism , Stem Cell Factor/metabolism , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Bone Marrow Cells/pathology , Cells, Cultured , Chronic Disease , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/methods , Female , Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor/metabolism , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neutropenia/pathology , Predictive Value of Tests , Stromal Cells/metabolism , Stromal Cells/pathologyABSTRACT
Splenic volume and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection were evaluated in 67 patients with chronic idiopathic neutropenia (CIN) and 39 healthy individuals. Using ultrasound, splenomegaly was found in 61.7% of H. pylori-infected subjects compared to only 8.7% noted in the group of H. pylori-non-infected individuals (P < 0.0001). Splenomegaly was also found in 47.8% of CIN patients compared to 12.8% in the group of non-CIN subjects (P = 0.0003). However, applying the two-way ANOVA test, a statistically significant effect on splenic volume was documented for "factor H. pylori " (F1(102) = 16.800, P < 0.0001) but not for "factor CIN" (F1(102) = 3.213, P = 0.0760), suggesting that CIN-associated splenomegaly is probably due to H. pylori infection.
