[Current aspects of iatrogenic lesions of the bone marrow]. / Attuali aspetti delle lesioni iatrogene del midollo osseo

An overall study, accompanied by some statistics, is presented of delayed bone marrow injuries caused by drugs, such as chloramphenicol, phenylbutazone, oxyphenbutazone, gold salts, sulphamides and diphenylhydantoin. Unanimous agreement as to the aetiological interpretation of isolated cases, the seriousness of marrow damage, and the results obtained by treatment can be observed in various countries. The available epidemiological data are incomplete, though they point to a parallel between the appearance of panmyelopathy after chloramphenicol and the consumption of this drug. First noted in the U.S., this relationship later became apparent in several European countries and eventually in West Germany. Frequencies range from 1 per 6,000 to 1 per 36,000 subjects treated in California, Hamburg and Sweden.

Cytologie and cytochemistry of colony cells in soft agar gel culture from normal and leukemic bone marrow.

In order to judge differentiation of cells in soft agar colonies, cytological and cytochemical classification of single cells within these colonies is necessary. In this study, 1,026 colonies from 15 normal and 95 leukemic bone marrows have been evaluated using cytological, cytochemical, and immunocytochemical techniques. In 180 colonies from 15 normal controls no segmented neutrophils have been observed. The colonies mostly consisted of monocytes and macrophages, rarely pure eosinophil colonies were observed. The number of monocyte/macrophage colonies in untreated AML and the percentage of pure eosinophil colonies in AML and ALL in remission are reduced, as compared to normal controls. In 174 colonies from a total of 926 colonies derived from bone marrows of leukemic patients, plasma cells and in 20 colonies, blast cells have been observed. In contrast to normal colonies, growth of colonies containing blast cells does not depend upon the conditioned medium of the leukocyte feederlayer. This investigation has demonstrated the necessity of cytological and cytochemical classification in addition to quantiative evaluation of soft agar colonies when studying the effect of factors on proliferation and differentiation of normal and leukemic stem cells.