The cellular basis of self renewal in culture by human acute myeloblastic leukemia blast cell progenitors.

Blast cells from patients with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia (AML) were separated according to cell size using velocity sedimentation under unit gravity. Fractions obtained in this way were plated in methyl cellulose with a growth stimulator present in media conditioned by leukocytes in the presence of phytohemagglutinin (PHA-LCM). Colonies of blast cells form under these conditions. Pooled cell suspensions from such colonies were plated in microwells; the plating efficiency of such suspensions is a measure of blast progenitor self-renewal occurring in the original blast colonies. Self-renewal assays on each fraction indicated that self renewal among blast progenitors is heterogeneously distributed with subpopulations differing in renewal capacities. The results are consistent with the view that blast cell subpopulations in AML undergo a series of transitions associated with decreasing self renewal capacity, analogous to that observed in normal hemopoiesis, where proliferative capacity decreases with increasing differentiation.