EFFECT OF GRANULOCYTE-COLONY-STIMULATING FACTOR (G-CSF) ON PERIPHERALLEUKOCYTE AND LYMPHOCYTE SUBSETS IN PATIENTS WITH CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED LEUKOPENIA

In patients with extensive chemotherapy, G-CSF abrogated leukopenia fo llowing administration of cytotoxic agents. Six women with ovarian can cer and chemotherapy-induced leukopenia received 300 mug Filgrastrim ( r-metHuG-CSF, Neupogen 30; AMGEN, Germany) daily for 10 days. Leukocyt es and lymphocyte subsets of peripheral blood were determined before, throughout and after subcutaneous injections of G-CSF by flow cytometr y using monoclonal antibodies to CD3, CD4, CD8, CD14, CD16/56, CD19 an d CD45. It could be observed that not only neutrophils (23 fold) but a lso lymphocytes (6 fold) and monocytes (10 fold) showed a dramatic inc rease in cell counts throughout and after G-CSF administration. This i s in contrast to previous reports, where only effects on neutrophils w ere described. In spite of the increase in lymphocytes the relative pe rcentage of CD3+, CD19+, CD3-CD16/CD56+, CD3+ CD8+ and CD3+ CD4+ lymph ocyte subsets did not change throughout and after therapy, except for an increased expression of HLA-DR on CD3+ lymphocytes.