Nouvelle revue francaise d'hematologie; blood cells最新文献

Splenectomies were performed on 142 patients (86 men and 56 women). The majority of them (117) were stages III or IV. The purpose of the laparotomy was therapeutic and not exploratory. Surgery was indicated, either due to evolution of the disease suggesting splenic involvement or to symptoms of hypersplenism. Splenic involvement was confirmed in 71% and hepatic involvement in 40%. Despite the risk of mortality during the first month after surgery, proportional to the extent of the disease, the overall results are encouraging provided that surgical intervention is followed by aggressive polychemotherapy. Serious infections were observed, however, in 9 patients; they did not occur for several months or even several years after splenectomy.

The case report of Niemann-Pick disease, in a 26 years old woman whose first symptoms appeared when she was 17 months old, is described. The disease, involving considerable hepatosplenomegaly and pulmonary infiltration, was diagnosed by the presence of lipid laden macrophages (resembling foam cells, sea blue histiocytes and kidney intermediate forms) in the bone marrow, liver and kidney, and an excess of tissue sphingomyelin and cholesterol, and a decrease in sphingomyelinase in circulating leucocytes. The results of ultrastructural, histochemical and biochemical studies on hepatic and renal lipids are reported. The relationship of the case to the sea blue histiocyte syndrome is discussed.

Erythrocyte-granulocyte rosettes (EGR) were found in the capillary blood of two cases of autoimmune haemolytic anemia, the first caused by an IgM non-I antibody and the second by an IgG. Both antibodies activated complement, and C3b was demonstrated on the erythrocytes. The rosettes appeared as arrangements of 6-10 red cells adhering to a central granulocyte; phagocytosis was most generally absent. The finding of EGR in the capillary blood may be useful for the recognition of complement activation up to the C3b stage in some cases of autoimmune haemolytic anemia.

Volumes of hematopoietic spleen colonies were estimated by measuring parameters of superimposed triaxial ellipsoids. Observations were made on groups of colonies that contained only undifferentiated cells or had differentiated to varying degrees into purely erythropoietic, purely granulocytic or purely megakaryocytic colonies. The average volume occupied by one cell and surrounding matrix, the so-called single cell space, was determined for each type of colony. The estimated colony cellularity was then computed from the measured colony volume and the tabulated single cell space. The techniques of measurement are described. Formulas are provided to estimate mean and variance of volumes and their cell contents. Data on the distribution of spleen colony size and cellularity after seven days of growth are given.

Patients receiving repeated transfusions sooner or later develop an anti-HL-A immunization. To prevent or to delay this immunization by transfusing "deleucocyted" blood appears in the long run, to be a vague hope. So, it became essential to use blood from donors typed for the HL-A system. In this study we have examined what would happen if a pool of 2,380 HL-A type donors were available for 110 recipients. Twenty five per cent of the recipients will have blood available from more than 5 donors with the same HL-A types as themselves, and 71% of them can receive blood from more than 5 donors sharing at least one antigen at each locus (and with no antigen known to be different between them).

The influence of several parameters on the capacity of C57BL/Ka mouse haematopoietic cells to support replication of the radiation leukemia virus (RadLV) has been examined. Although replication of the virus is strongly thymotropic, the bone marrow and spleen are also susceptible when infection is initiated at birth rather than in adult life. Irradiation transiently restores the susceptibility of adults almost to the neonatal level. Neonatal thymectomy does not diminish the capacity of marrow cells to support virus replication, indicating that the migration of infected thymus cells back to the marrow is not responsible for the observed effect. Bone marrow cells in which viral antigens are no longer detectable yield infectious virus after intrathymic inoculation, suggesting the existence of a cryptic state of virus infection.

On the basis of clonal development of leukemias, the beginning of the true preleukemias should antedate the overt leukemia by at least 37 doubling times (e.g., at least 4 years in the chronic granulocytic leukemia).

Cytologic and cytogenetic studies were performed on the bone marrow cells in atomic bomb-exposed patients who had prolonged periods of blood disorders with termination of acute leukemia (group I, 6 cases) and without the termination (group II, 6 cases), and survivors who were in apparent good health (group III, 85 cases). All but one patient in group I, who were examined at the preleukemic state, had abnormal clones. In 4 out of 6 of group I patients, morphologic abnormalities of bone marrow cells taken 3-10 years before leukemic development were found, such as giant neutrophils or basophils, binucleated granulocytes or megakaryocytes, and bridge formation of chromatid in metaphases. All patients in group II had stable types of chromosome aberrations. The types of cytologic abnormalities were similar to those in group I, but the frequencies were a little less than those in group I. In group III, 14 persons were found to have stable types of chromosome aberrations, of which 11 persons had apparent but transient clone formations. Cytologic and clinical abnormalities were not observed in the group. The persistent and high percentages of cytologic and cytogenetic abnormalities in patients with prolonged periods of blood disorders, regardless of history of radiation exposure, would suggest a preleukemic state, and also give some clue to the problems of leukemogenesis.