N. Casadevall et al., AGE-RELATED ALTERATIONS IN ERYTHROID AND GRANULOPOIETIC PROGENITORS IN DIAMOND-BLACKFAN ANEMIA, British Journal of Haematology, 87(2), 1994, pp. 369-375
Mechanisms involved in the erythroid failure characterizing Diamond-Bl
ackfan anaemia (DBA) remain unidentified. The general consensus is tha
t the defect is intrinsic to the marrow erythroid progenitor, but the
target progenitor cell has not been precisely identified, and in vitro
studies have revealed considerable heterogeneity between patients. In
order to understand better the meaning of such a biological heterogen
eity, we examined the in vitro response of erythroid progenitors CFU-E
(colony-forming unit-erythroid) and BFU-E (burst-forming unit-erythro
id) to erythropoietin (Epo), interleukin-3 (IL-3) and stem cell factor
(SCF) in a large series of 24 patients from 1 month to over 20 years
of age. Results of colony assays revealed a striking correlation betwe
en the age of the patient and the extent of the abnormalities detected
in vitro. Therefore, despite profound anaemia, 80% (7/10) of the pati
ents studied within 1 year of diagnosis had normal numbers of both CFU
-E and BFU-E which exhibited a normal response to cytokines. In contra
st, 12/14 patients followed up for more than 3 years had decreased num
bers of erythroid progenitors, in seven cases associated with decrease
d colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM). The number of C
FU-E and BFU-E was not normalized even by the addition of high concent
rations of combined Epo, IL-3 and SCF. These data strongly support the
idea that the haemopoietic defect in DBA involves a pluripotent proge
nitor and worsens with time: it is masked by the culture conditions at
the onset of the disease, whereas overt expression of intrinsic alter
ations occurs only at later stages of the disease and these are not re
stricted to the erythroid lineage.