Studies on lymphocytes. IX. The survival of atuotransfused labeled lymphocytes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Kinetic studies on lymphocytes labelled with indium 111-oxine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

The kinetics of 111Indium-oxine-labelled autologous blood lymphocytes were studied in normal subjects and 10 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). In both normal and leukaemic subjects, intravascular survival of lymphocytes was characterized by two exponential decreases, the first being a rapid one and the second slow phase. T 1/2 of the second phase for normal T lymphocytes (52.0 +/- 3.2 h: mean +/- SEM) was longer than that for B lymphocytes (31.6 +/- 2.8 h). T 1/2 of the second phase in patients with CLL was 15.1 to 192.6 h, which correlated well with the clinical stage of CLL by the Rai classification. Body surface scanning revealed prominent splenic accumulation of labelled cells in normal individuals and patients with CLL. Lymph node visualization was recognized in all patients with T-cell CLL; however, there was no visualization in 8 of the 9 patients with B-cell CLL. The longer survival time and splenic and lymph node visualization suggest that an expansion of the extravascular lymphocyte pool may be important in the pathophysiology of CLL.

Cellular kinetics in a patient with Sezary syndrome

Cellular kinetics and proliferation of Sezary cells (SC) were studied in a 48-year-old woman with Sezary syndrome (SS). In vitro flash labeling indices of peripheral blood (PB) SC were studied by labeling with tritiated thymidine (3HTdR) and tritiated cytidine (3HCdR). Intradermal SC were labeled in vivo by local injection of 3HTdR followed by skin biopsies of the injected sites. Traffic patterns of DNA labeled PB SC were studied by intravenous 3HTdR followed by sampling of PB, skin, lymph node (LN), and bone marrow (BM). Fluxes of PB SC in various tissues were investigated by autotransfusion of 3HCdR labeled PB SC followed by serial sampling of PB, LN, BM, and skin. In vitro response of PB SC followed by serial sampling of PB, LN, BM, and skin. In vitro response of PB SC to phytohemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A), and pokeweed (PWM) were also investigated. The results from these studies in this patient indicate that 1) proliferation of SC was primarily in the skin, 2) there was a negligible flux of SC from blood into skin, LN, and BM, and 3) the mitogenic response of PB mononuclear cells (mostly SC) to PHA, PWM, and Con A was poor.

Trapping and destruction of blood-borne syngeneic leukaemia cells in lung, liver and spleen of normal and leukaemic rats

Leukaemic cells from rats with a lymphoid (HRL) or myeloid (SAL) leukaemia were labelled with 125IUDR and injected i.v. into either normal or leukaemic syngeneic recipients. The fate of the injected cells was studied in terms of the radioactivity in various tissues at various times up to 24 h later. In normal animals the leukaemia cells were destroyed rapidly in the reticulo-endothelial (RE) system; immediately after injection most recoverable activity was in the lung, with smaller amounts in the blood, spleen and liver but by 24 h only 20-30% of the injected activity could be recovered. In leukaemic recipients with high numbers of blasts in the blood the amount of activity recoverable from the lungs and bone-marrow was markedly reduced, while that in the blood was doubled. Nonetheless, the overall rate at which radioactivity was eliminated was not significantly different from that found in normal rats, in spite of the fact that the RE system was extensively infiltrated by leukaemia cells.