[Nuclear and lysosomal protein distribution in granulocytes of varying degrees of maturity]

An experimental quantitation of nuclear and lysosomal proteins of granulocytes was made in healthy individuals and in patients with chronic and acute myelogenous leukaemia. The patients were divided into three (II-IV) groups according to the cell maturity coefficient (K) calculated as the ratio of the total amount of myeloblasts + myelocytes and metamyelocytes towards the number of mature granulocytes of the neutrophil series. The group of donors designated as group I had K = 0. The content of nuclear (histones and non-histones) and lysosomal proteins in granulocytes at different stages of maturity was determined by means of the equations in whose left sides the unknown quantities were X1 (mature granulocytes), X2-3 (metamyelocytes and myelocytes), X4-5 (promyelocytes and myeloblasts), and in the right sides the experimental M1, M2, M3 and M4 corresponded to the quantities of proteins found for the group of patients with the determined K. The role of changes in ratios of the proteins studied in the malignant transformation of leucocytes has been discussed.