Cell Regulation of Proliferation and Differentiation ex vivo for Cells Containing Ph Chromosome in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Cell regulation of Ph(+)cell proliferation and differentiation has been studied ex vivo in various chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. The regulation is provided by alternation of effective stages of proliferation and maturation with inhibition of Ph(+) cell proliferation by accumulating neutrophils under apoptosis blockage. The alternation of stages consists of switching stage 1 (effective proliferation) to stage 2 (effective maturation) and proceeds according to the 1/2 -1/2/1 or 2/1-2/1/2/1 schemes. The kinetic plots of alternations pass through control points of crossing plots, where the parameters of proliferation and maturation are equal. The indices of P/D efficiency (ratio of proliferation and maturation rates) are 1.06±0.23 and don't depend on time, alternation order, or sources of Ph(+) cells - CML patients. During stages alternation, conversely, the parameters of Ph+ cell proliferation and maturation vary. The proliferation stages are characterized by increased proliferating cells content, a decreased number of neutrophils, and apoptosis induction. At the maturation stages, conversely, apoptosis is inhibited, the number of mature neutrophils increases, while immature Ph(+) cells decrease. High content neutrophils inhibit the proliferation of Ph(+) cells and impair their own maturation by inversion of maturation order, probably through a feedback mechanism. The regulation differences ex vivo reveal three types of Ph(+) cells from various individual CML patients, distinguished by the number and duration of alternating stages of proliferation and maturation. Ph(+) cells types 1 and 2 have one prolonged stage of effective proliferation or effective maturation with efficiency indices P/D(1) = 1-20 or P/D(2) ⇐ 1. At the same time period, the proliferation and differentiation of the Ph(+) cells type 3 proceeds with repeated alternations of stages with P/D(1) = 1-4 or P/D(2) ⇐ 1. Type 1 Ph(+) cells (~20%) were isolated from patients in advanced stages of CML, while Ph(+) cells types 2 and 3 (30 and 50% correspondingly) were isolated from CML chronic phase patients sensitive to chemotherapy.