[Establishment and biological characterization of a transplantable BALB/c mouse erythroblastic leukemia model]

Biological characterization of a BALB/c mouse transplantable erythroblastic leukemia model EL9611.

The original erythroblastic leukemia (EL) mouse was obtained by 7,12-DMBA induction. The spleen cell suspension from the original EL mouse was injected into the same inbred BALB/c strain mice. After successive transplantation for 20 generations, the incidence of EL was 100% without spontaneous remission. There was a linear relationship between the survival time of the EL mice and the number of leukemic cells inoculated. When 10(6) leukemic cells were inoculated intravenously, the EL mice survived 10.2 +/- 1.3 days. Invasion of leukemic cells involved mainly in the bone marrow, the spleen and the liver. There was no obvious infiltration of leukemic cells in lymph-nodes and thymus. In peripheral blood, there were a large number of leukemic cells and most of them were basophilic or polychromatophilic erythroblasts. At the advanced stage, the mice developed anemia and thrombocytopenia. The reaction of the leukemic cells for hemoglobin staining was positive or weakly positive. While the peroxydase reaction was negative, Thy-1 antigen and Fc-recepter were not presented. No virus-like particles was found in the cells under electron microscope. EL9611 leukemia model was sensitive to some antitumor drugs used in clinical therapy.

The establishment of EL9611 leukemia model offered a useful tool for studying proliferation and differentiation of erythroid cells, as well as pathogenesis and experimental treatment of non-virus erythroid malignancy.