Modifying effects of heparan sulfate from leukemic cells on growth of stromal cells of rat bone marrow

Modifying effects of heparan sulfate (HS), sulfated and low sulfated glycos aminoglycanes (GAG) on the colony forming capacity of fibroblasts (GFU-F) w ere studied in the monolayer cell cultures of rat bone marrow. HS and vario us GAG were isolated from blood granulocytes of 7 patients with chronic mye loid leukemia (CML) and normal donor. HS of leukemic cells of CML patients in progressive phase of disease had the most prominent inhibitory activity on CFU-F (91.7 +/- 0.2%), the same effects of sulfated GAG being less prono unced (53.4 +/- 0.9%, P < 0.05). Sulfated GAG of normal granulocytes and al l studied low sulfated GAG samples did not affect CFU-F growth.