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E Receptors on Blasts from Untreated Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (All): Comparison of Temperature Dependence of E Rosettes Formed by Normal and Leukemic Lymphoid Cells¹

Laboratories of Virology and Immunology and the Hematology Service, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis Tennessee 38101

Abstract

The presence of receptors for sheep erythrocytes (E) and surface Ig on the bone marrow blasts was investigated in 29 children with untreated acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). In 6 of them more than 50% of the bone marrow blasts formed E rosettes, while in none of the 29 were surface Ig detected. The six children with rosette-forming blasts had WBC ; 5 x 10⁴/mm³ at admission and 4 of them presented with thymic enlargement. E-positive ALL blasts and normal human thymocytes formed rosettes after incubation for 1 hr at 4°C or 37°C. In contrast, normal human peripheral T lymphocytes from blood, spleen, and pleural fluid also formed rosettes at 4°C but these rosettes dissociated at 37°C. In two patients with E-positive ALL, the disappearance from blood of cells forming rosettes at 37°C during the 1st week of treatment paralleled the reduction in circulating blasts. Conversely, after 6 days of therapy almost one-half of the remaining cells formed rosettes at 4°C and had the morphologic features of normal lymphocytes. We conclude that, in contrast to peripheral T cells, normal thymic cells and E-positive blasts share the property of forming E rosettes after 1-hr incubation at 37°C. In patients with E-positive ALL this property may be used to evaluate drug effects upon leukemic and normal T lymphocytes.

Footnotes

¹ This study was supported by Research Grants CA-13050 and CA-12787, Clinical Center Grant CA-08480 from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society Grant C1-71, and by ALSAC.