Proliferation and production of hemopoietic cells two stages of disease: preleukemia and overt leukemia.

The kinetics of erythropietic and granulocytopoietic cell proliferation have been investigated in the same patient at two distinct stages: firstly in preleukemia presenting as pancytopenia with ineffective erythropoiesis, and secondly 2 years later in acute myelogenous leukemia. The method investigation is based on determining the DNA synthesis rate of individual cells by means of quantitative 14C-autoradiography after short-term incubation with 14C-thymidine and fluorodeoxyuridine. Erythropoiesis was equally ineffective in the two stages, the rate of proliferation, however, slowed down towards the leukemic state. The production rate of myeloblasts was markedly reduced in preleukemia accompained by a very low labelling index. In leukemia on the other hand the production rate was increased to such a degree that the leukemic myeoblast compartment is to be considered as prevailingly self-reproductive. The proliferation rate of myeloblasts was reduced already in preleukemia, and there was a further decrease in leukemia. From the point of view of cell kinetics the manifestation of leukemia in this patient is explained best by a change in the mode of proliferation: the myeloblasts change from steady state growth to behaving like an exponentially expanding population.