In vitro culture of cells from patients with leukemia

: The development of cytological, cytochemical and immunological investigations of leukemic cells as well as new cytostatic drug combinations have led to great progress in the diagnosis and treatment of acute leukemia (AL). However, a heterogeneity in response to the same kind of therapy has been noted in patients with the same cytological type of the disease. This points out the importance of investigations of leukemic cells in culture which should provide more data on proliferation and reactivity of these cells. The population of tumor cells in heterogeneous in morphological and biochemical properties, in proliferative capacity and other characteristics. In cell culture it is possible to investigate the growth of cells and the effects of various agents on normal and malignant cells. In this study we investigated the growth of cells from bone marrow of patients with acute leukemias and acute phase of chronic leukemias. Cells from 17 patients were studied. The patients were from Internal Clinic A in Belgrade and the investigations were performed before treatment. Bone marrow cells were cultured in vitro on plastics and growth of the adherent cells was followed in the course of 2-3 weeks. The results show that bone marrow cells adhered and proliferated in 12/17 patients, there was low proliferation in 4/17 and none in 1/17. It is shown that in these conditions a successful growth of fibroblast-like shaped cells can be obtained with the bone marrow cells, but it is still not possible to correlate the course of the disease and the proliferation in vitro.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)