CYTOKINE PRODUCTION IN LONG-TERM MARROW CULTURES AFTER AUTOLOGOUS BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION

We compared the release of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating f actor (GM-CSF), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and tumo r necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) in the supernatants of long-term b one marrow cultures (LTBMC) derived from 10 control patients and from 14 patients before and 3 months after autologous bone marrow transplan tation (BMT), The three cytokines were spontaneously present in the su pernatant of cultures established from patients before and after autol ogous BMT, while GM-CSF remained undetectable in the supernatants of c ontrol patients, The maximal levels of cytokines were produced after t he first week and were not statistically different between control, pa tients before and after grafts although the granulocyte-macrophage col ony-forming unit (CFU-GM) production in long-term culture (LTC) was lo wer in patients after graft compared with control patients (median val ues at LTC initiation: 32 and 158, respectively, P < 0.001 and median values of the total production: 510 and 12406, respectively, P < 0.002 ), However, GM-CSF was more frequently detected in patients after graf t than in control patients. This study demonstrated that the productio n of GM-CSF, G-CSF and TNF alpha is not impaired in patients after gra ft (medians 0, 870.5, 173.5 pg/ml and ranges 0-31.2, 0-10 000 and 0-14 26, respectively) compared with control patients (medians 0, 69, 66 pg /ml and ranges 0, 0-13 280 and 0-1318, respectively), although patient s after graft were shown to have lower marrow CFU-GM counts, These res ults suggest that the ability of the accessory cells to produce these cytokines was not reduced after autologous BMT.