Maturation of human peripheral blood leukemic cells in short-term culture

This work is a continuation of earlier studies in this laboratory (Palú et al. 1979) in which two populations of cryopreserved acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) cells were shown to undergo progressive maturation in vitro. Twelve other populations of AML cells have since been studied and three distinct patterns of in vitro behaviour have been observed: 1. Cells which did not mature. 2. Cells which matured to the polymorph series and 3. Cells which matured to the macrophage series. Six populations of AML cells were studied both before and after cryopreservation to demonstrate that exposure to the cryopreservative agent dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) does not influence the patterns of maturation observed. The effect of thioproline and prostaglandins A1 and A2 on maturation was also studied. It is too early to say whether any correlation between the prognosis of the AML patients and the maturation pattern of their AML cells can be established.