Overexpression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ by bone marrow cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

Abstract

To clarify whether regulatory cytokines inhibit hematopoiesis in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), malignancies characterized by the formation of cytopenias despite the presence of cellular bone marrow, expression of TNF-α and IFN-γby bone marrow cells was investigated using specific reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays. An enhanced expression of the mRNA for TNF-α was observed in most of the samples from MDS patients (11/14, 79%), whereas no enhancement was observed in bone marrow samples from AML (0/6), CML (0/2) or control cases (0/8). The expression of IFN-γ was also enhanced in some of MDS cases (5/12, 42%) while AML (0/5), CML (0/2) and control cases (0/6) showed very low levels of IFN-γ mRNA expression. Immunohistochemical examination confirmed the scattered presence of TNF-α or IFN-γ producing cells in the bone marrow of MDS patients. The majority of these cells were CD68-positive macrophage lineage cells. These results suggested that disruption of hematopoiesis in MDS might be caused by enhanced production of inhibitory regulatory cytokines especially TNF-α and occasionally IFN-γ by bone marrow macrophages.