Studies on granulocyte functions in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

Granulocyte functions, viz. endocytosis, NADPH oxidase activity and iodination by leukocytes, were studied in granulocytes isolated from 17 chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients at initial diagnosis (stage I), from 10 patients in relapse (stage II), and 10 patients in acute blastic crisis (stage III). The mean phagocytic index of granulocytes from CML patients was similar to the normal value. NADPH activity decreased as the disease progressed. Thus, the amount of formazan produced was lower in granulocytes from patients in stage II (P less than 0.05) and stage III (P less than 0.01) than that produced by normal granulocytes. H2O2-Myeloperoxidase-dependent iodination was found to be significantly reduced in granulocytes from all stages of the disease compared to that of normal, stage I (P less than 0.01), stage II (P less than 0.05) and stage III (P less than 0.01). It thus seems that granulocyte function becomes less efficient as the disease progresses towards acute blastic crisis. Immature cells from the same patients carried out these functions at a more reduced level than did their mature counterparts.