LONG-TERM BONE-MARROW CULTURE PROFILES IN PATIENTS WITH MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES ARE NOT EXPLICABLE BY DEFECTIVE APOPTOSIS

It has been suggested that increased intramedullary apoptosis may expl ain the paradox between peripheral blood cytopenias and the hyper- or normo-cellular bone marrow observed in the myelodysplastic syndromes ( MDS). We wished to see if culture performance could be related to the presence of apoptotic cells in a group of patients with MDS (12 patien ts) and other patients with peripheral blood cytopenias (six patients) which caused diagnostic difficulty. There was no correlation between LTBMC or adherent cell growth and the presence of apoptotic cells in t he original marrow sample. A variable degree of apoptosis was observed in both groups of patients. LTBMC profiles correlated well with diagn osis but were unrelated to the extent of intramedullary apoptosis. Thi s suggests that apoptosis is a much more ubiquitous process in disease than previously thought. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.