Abstract
In vitro drug sensitivity of leukaemic cells might be influenced by the contamination of such a sample with non-malignant cells and the sample source. To study this, sensitivity of normal peripheral blood (PB) lymphocytes to a number of cytostatic drugs was assessed with the MTT assay. We compared this sensitivity with the drug sensitivity of leukaemic cells of 38 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. We also studied a possible differential sensitivity of leukaemic cells from bone marrow (BM) and PB. The following drugs were used: Prednisolone, dexamethasone, 6-mercaptopurine, 6-thioguanine, cytosine arabinoside, vincristine, vindesine, daunorubicin, doxorubicin, mafosfamide (Maf), 4-hydroperoxy-ifosfamide, teniposide, mitoxantrone, L-asparaginase, methotrexate and mustine. Normal PB lymphocytes were significantly more resistant to all drugs tested, except to Maf. Leukaemic BM and PB cells from 38 patients (unpaired samples) showed no significant differences in sensitivity to any of the drugs. Moreover, in 11 of 12 children with acute leukaemia of whom we investigated simultaneously obtained BM and PB (paired samples), their leukaemic BM and PB cells showed comparable drug sensitivity profiles. In one patient the BM cells were more sensitive to most drugs than those from the PB, but the actual differences in sensitivity were small. We conclude that the contamination of a leukaemic sample with normal PB lymphocytes will influence the results of the MTT assay. The source of the leukaemic sample, BM or PB, does not significantly influence the assay results.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kaspers, G., Pieters, R., Van Zantwijk, C. et al. In vitro drug sensitivity of normal peripheral blood lymphocytes and childhood leukaemic cells from bone marrow and peripheral blood. Br J Cancer 64, 469–474 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1991.333
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1991.333
This article is cited by
-
Prediction of individual response to anticancer therapy: historical and future perspectives
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (2015)
-
Natural resistance to apoptosis correlates with resistance to chemotherapy in colorectal cancer cells
Clinical and Experimental Medicine (2012)
-
Cooperative study group for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (COALL): long-term results of trials 82,85,89,92 and 97
Leukemia (2010)
-
The human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 mediates in vitro cytarabine sensitivity in childhood acute myeloid leukaemia
British Journal of Cancer (2005)
-
In vitro drug-resistance profile in infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia in relation to age, MLL rearrangements and immunophenotype
Leukemia (2004)