[Impaired superoxide production by neutrophils in myelodysplastic syndrome: correlation with bone marrow karyotype]

Superoxide (O2-) production by neutrophils was examined in 21 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), including 13 with primary MDS (p-MDS) and 8 with therapy-related MDS (t-MDS). O2-production of MDS patients was significantly less than that of healthy controls (2.81 +/- 3.51 vs 6.19 +/- 2.41 nmol/min/10(6) PNMs, p less than 0.005). Although no relationship between pathogenesis (primary or therapy related), FAB type and levels of O2- production was observed, O2- production of 11 patients with abnormal bone marrow karyotypes was significantly reduced than that of 10 other patients with normal karyotypes. Furthermore, five t-MDS patients with monosomy for all or part of chromosome no. 7 (-7 or 7q-) showed the lowest level of O2- production, which was significantly different from the level in the patients with other abnormal karyotypes (0.61 +/- 0.29 vs 1.80 +/- 0.31, p less than 0.001). These results suggest that the long arm of chromosome no. 7 may in part play an important role for O2- production by neutrophils.