THE INFLUENCE OF PHORBOL DIESTHER ON PROL IFERATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF PRIMARY BLAST CELLS FROM LEUKEMIA PATIENTS AND BLASTS SECRETION OF BIOLOGICALLY-ACTIVE AGENTS

The influence of tetra phorbol diesther (TPA) on primary blast cells o f patients with acute leukemia and blastic crises of chronic myelogeno us leukemia and the influence of the condition medium (CM) of the prim ary and TPA-treated blast cells on the proliferation of HL-60 cell lin e has been studied. The level of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in CM wa s tested. TPA inhibited proliferation and induced macrophagelike diffe rentiatiion of primary AML blast cells and these changes were accompan ied by modulation of IFN-alpha expression in CM. The effect of blast C M on proliferation of HL-60 was both inhibitory and stimulating and de pended on the time of treatment and individual characteristics of pati ents. It has been shown that the level of IFN-alpha in CM was not corr elated with antiproliferative effect of CM. The role of individual dif ferences in capability of primary blast cells to be induced by differe ntiated agents and the nature of these differences are discussed.