Abnormal responsiveness of granulocyte-macrophage committed colony-forming cells from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia to inhibition by prostaglandin E1.

ABSTRACT

The formation of myeloid colonies in soft-agar cultures of normal human marrow was markedly inhibited by prostaglandin E. Morphological characterization of colonies in the presence or absence of prostaglandin E1 showed that inhibition was restricted to monocytoid rather than neutrophil differentiation. Myeloid colony formation by granulocyte-macrophage-commited colony-forming cells from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia was not inhibited even by high concentrations of prostaglandin E and was independent of colony morphology. The altered sensitivity of leukemic colony-forming cells to prostaglandin E was observed at all stages of the disease and persisted following chemotherapy-induced reversion to a partial or complete Philadelphia chromosome-negative bone marrow status. This evidence suggests that altered myeloid stem cell sensitivity to a normal regulatory factor may play a role in the pathophysiology of chronic myeloid leukemia.