Chronic idiopathic neutropenia associated with abnormal expression of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor mRNA of bone marrow stromal cells.

Chronic idiopathic neutropenia is an uncommon condition characterized by a low level of neutrophils without any causative disease. We report the details of 4 patients whose stromal cytokine mRNA expressions were examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Three patients showed a lower expression of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) mRNA both in constructive and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced conditions and normal colony forming unit-granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) from the bone marrow cells. One patient showed an increase of G-CSF mRNA and a decrease of CFU-GM. No abnormal expression of other cytokines including interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6 and IL-8 were observed. These findings indicate that cytokine mRNA analysis of stromal cells is useful for elucidation of the etiology.