Immunobiology of lymphoid malignancy

Glycol methacrylate (GMA) embedding for light microscopy. II. Immunohistochemical analysis of semithin sections of undecalcified marrow cores

A routine method allows bone marrow biopsy specimens to be embedded in glycol methacrylate (GMA), a water miscible plastic, and to benefit from the advantages of good morphology with immunoperoxidase detection of a wide range of cellular antigens useful in diagnosing and classifying various haematopoietic disorders. Marrow cores were fixed in cold Bouin's solution, rinsed in cold phosphate buffer, dehydrated in cold methanol, infiltrated and embedded in cold GMA, then polymerised at 4 degrees C. Sections were cut at 2 micron thickness with a Tungsten carbide knife in a Jung's high performance microtome (Autocut). Antigenecity was preserved when drying slides at room temperature but pronase digestion was necessary to re-expose the antigens in bone marrow biopsy sections embedded in GMA. Histostik, a new adhesive, was used to coat the glass slides to prevent section loss during enzyme digestion and immunostaining procedures. This method of adapting plastic embedding to undecalcified marrow cores preserves marrow architecture and cellular details and it can serve as a useful adjunct to analyse the bone marrow from patients with myeloproliferative and lymphoproliferative disorders. This technique may also be applicable in non-haematological malignant conditions which affect the marrow.

Antigenic expression by cells derived from human gliomas does not correlate with morphological classification

We have found that cell populations derived from human gliomas can be divided into antigenic classes which are not predictable on the basis of standard morphological analysis and which, most frequently, do not support the lineage assignations of various tumours as determined by traditional neuropathological methods. For example, only 6/60 cultures derived from astrocytomas expressed glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an astrocyte specific marker, and all six of these cultures were derived from morphological categories which more frequently gave rise to populations which did not express GFAP. None of the seven oligodendrogliomas or four oligo-astrocytomas examined expressed antigens specifically expressed by oligodendrocytes. Most tumour-derived populations, from all classes of tumour and all grades of malignancy, expressed cell-surface fibronectin, an extracellular matrix protein only rarely found on the surfaces of CNS macroglia; such cells did not express glial-specific antigens (e.g., GFAP) in vitro. Investigation of antigen expression in tumour biopsies indicated that some tumours also consisted largely or wholly of cells which expressed fibronectin in situ. Fibronectin-expressing cells were aneuploid and were not contact inhibited in their growth, indicating that they were transformed cells. We have also identified two previously unknown antigenic phenotypes among the gliomas.

Differentiation induction in myeloid leukemic cells

Work based on immortalised leukemic cell lines indicates that the maturation arrest in leukemia can be reversible. Successful differentiation induction would mean restoring the link between proliferation and differentiation. Human cell lines such as the promyelocytic HL-60 and the monoblastic U-937 can be induced to mature by incubation with a wide variety of agents, e.g. phorbol diesters, retinoic acid and 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol. In addition, mitogen-stimulated lymphocytes and some T-lymphocyte lines produce a polypeptide called the differentiation-inducing factor (DIF), which mediates maturation of HL-60 into macrophage-like cells with resulting proliferation inhibition. DIF also displays a primary growth inhibitory effect on certain subclones of the cell lines as well as on fresh clonogenic cells from patients with acute myeloid leukemia and on normal granulocyte-macrophage progenitors. Our data indicate that there is more than one way to induce differentiation in leukemia but final common pathways may exist. Complementary, synergistic, maturation effects are seen between some agents, which may become of clinical utility.

Recurrences of isolated leukemic hypopyon in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The authors report follow-up observations for a case of isolated leukemic uveopathy that was first diagnosed in an 11-year-old girl shortly after cessation of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Prior therapy for the complication included systemic antiblastic chemotherapy and low doses of radiation (3.9 Gy) to the affected eye. In July 1979, 2 months after chemotherapy was stopped for the second time, she presented with recurrent leukemic hypopyon in the left eye and was treated again with antiblastic chemotherapy followed in 1 year by high-dose (20 Gy) local irradiation. After a third recurrence, which was diagnosed as pre-B/B-cell ALL with a variable position of maturation arrest, enucleation was performed. The patient remains in complete remission for 26+ months after an additional course of systemic chemotherapy. This case illustrates the difficulty of eradicating leukemic cells from the eye with conventional treatment but suggests that a relapse in this site is not necessarily an ominous prognostic sign.

T-cell growth factor production by adult, but not childhood. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemic cells

The production of T-cell growth factor (TCGF) by acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) cells was determined in seven children and in three adults. A significant production of TCGF by adult, but not childhood, ALL cells was observed. The adult ALL cells were classified as "non-T-non-B" by surface marker analysis. It is suggested that TCGF production may not be confined to the cells of T-lineage.