[Purge of malignant cells from bone marrow by hematoporphyrin derivatives and light exposure in vitro]

During autologous bone marrow graft in treatment of malignant diseases, it is critical to purge malignant cells from the marrow. In the present study, the sensitivity to photodynamic inactivation of 3 leukemic cell lines was compared with their counterpart normal hematopoietic cells. After mouse leukemic L1210 cells were treated with a preparation of hematoporphyrin derivatives, YHpD, 10 micrograms/ml for 1 h and irradiated with black light (peak wavelength 395 nm, light intensity 0.6 mW/cm2) for 5 min, the survival rate of clonogenic cells decreased to less than 10%, while that of bone marrow granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells (CFU-GM) in DBA/2 mice remained at nearly normal level (greater than 80%). Similar results were obtained when human leukemic HL-60 cells were compared to human CFU-GM and mouse leukemic L615 cells to CFU-GM in 615 strain mice. It is suggested that hematoporphyrin photoradiation may be useful for selectivity killing leukemic cells in bone marrow.