Effect of recombinant human D-factor on the growth of leukemic blast progenitors from acute myeloblastic leukemia patients.

We studied the effects of D-factor on the growth of leukemic blast progenitors from 15 patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia and two leukemia cell lines in methylcellulose and suspension cultures. When stimulated by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor or interleukin-3, leukemic blast progenitors undergo terminal division with limited differentiation in methylcellulose culture, forming blast colonies. Leukemic blast progenitors can renew themselves. The self-renewal can be detected as secondary colony formation after replating primary blast colonies in fresh methylcellulose media and by the growth of clonogenic cells in suspension culture. D-Factor suppressed primary and secondary colony formation in methylcellulose culture. Furthermore, D-factor suppressed clonogenic cell recovery in suspension culture. The suppression by D-factor of the growth of leukemic blast progenitors was not significantly dependent upon the colony-stimulating factors used as growth-stimulating factors. High concentration of G-CSF did not overcome the suppressive effect of D-factor. The results indicate that D-factor is effective in suppressing not only terminal division but also self-renewal of leukemic blast progenitors.