Peripheral Leukocyte Kinetic Studies of Acute Leukemia in Relapse and Remission and Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia in Blastic Crisis

I T HAS BEEN ONLY RECENTLY that significant progress has been made in the study of leukocyte kinetics and cell proliferation in acute leukemia. This became possible with the introduction of tritiated thymidine (H3TdR), a labeled precursor specffic for DNA.’ With the technic of radioautography, this labeled compound has been employed in vivo to investigate the leukemic cell cycle and cell proliferation in patients with acute leukemia in relapse and in blastic crisis.24’ In vitro studies to characterize the proliferative capacity of leukemic leukocytes have also been performed.3’6”248 The purpose of this paper is to present data concerning peripheral blood leukocyte kinetics in patients with acute leukemia both in relapse and remission and in patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia in blastic crisis. Liquid scintillation counting of isolated leukocytes and radioautography following single intravenous injections of H3TdR were employed in these studies.