[Nuclear nonhistone proteins in normal and leukemic leukocytes]

Leukemic transformation was shown to be associated with alteration in the level, profile, amino acid composition and metabolic activity of nuclear nonhistone proteins (NHP) of human leukocytes. The level of HMG-protein in patients with blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia of the lymphoid type was 5 times that in patients with the myeloid type of blast crisis. The NHP of both transformed and non-transformed leukocytes were shown to undergo glycosylation. A correlation was established between carbohydrate precursor uptake level, on the one hand, and cell specificity, degree of cell differentiation, and cell proliferation rate, on the other. Successful treatment was followed by a rise in NHP level and metabolic activity, improvement in their profile (it became similar to that in donors) and an increase in the share of high-molecular components.