Srpski arhiv za celokupno lekarstvo 2014 Volume 142, Issue 1-2, Pages: 48-53
https://doi.org/10.2298/SARH1402048K
Full text ( 1003 KB)
Higher percentage of in vitro apoptotic cells at time of diagnosis in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia indicate earlier treatment requirement: Ten years follow up
Kravić-Stevović Tamara (Institute of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade)
Bogdanović Andrija (Clinic for Hematology, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade + Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade)
Bumbaširević Vladimir (Institute of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade)
Introduction. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has an extremely variable
clinical course. Biological reasons for that wide variation in clinical
course and survival rates in CLL patients are not fully understood.
Objective. The aim of the study was to evaluate the value of spontaneous
apoptosis of CLL cells in vitro determined at presentation of disease, in
prediction of treatment requirements and evolution of the CLL. Methods.
Malignant B cells were isolated from the whole blood of 30 newly diagnosed
CLL patients and cultured for 24 hours in RPMI-1640 medium supplemented with
10% of serum obtained from the same CLL patient. Cells were later fixed and
processed for embedding in Epon, or cell smears were prepared and stained
with TUNEL technique. Results. Ten-year follow-up revealed that patients with
lower percentage of cells in apoptosis at presentation of disease had
significant longer time treatment initiation (log rank test p<0.05). On the
contrary, apoptosis of CLL cells was not shown to have significant impact on
survival of patients (Kaplan Meier log rank test p>0.05). Conclusion. The
results of this study emphasize the importance of apoptosis of CLL cells at
the time of the initial diagnosis in pathobiology of this disease.
Keywords: apoptosis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, autologous serum, prognosis, survival
Projekat
Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 41025