Correlation between the proliferative response to granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor and the positivity of transferrin receptor in acute myeloblastic leukemia cells

The use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) after chemotherapy for acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) has been reported. However, there is a drawback in that G-CSF may stimulate the proliferation of AML progenitors. To determine the parameter(s) indicative of responsiveness of AML blasts to G-CSF, various surface phenotypes of blasts were examined in relation to the blast colony formation stimulated by G-CSF in 39 AML patients. A correlation was found only with transferrin receptor positivity among the various phenotypes studied. The population mean of percentages of transferrin receptor-positive blasts in the group responding to G-CSF in vitro was significantly higher than that of blasts in the group not responding to G-CSF. A further correlation was found between transferrin receptor positivity and the number of G-CSF receptors on the blasts; that is, blasts expressing more G-CSF receptors have greater transferrin receptor positivity. In our previous study, we observed that blasts with a large number of G-CSF receptors produce more colonies in response to G-CSF. These results indicated that blasts expressing more transferrin receptors have a larger number of G-CSF receptors and may show more active proliferation in response to G-CSF. Therefore, the proliferative response of blasts to G-CSF can be predicted by examining transferrin receptor positivity. The clinical use of G-CSF in AML patients may be recommended when the patient's blasts have a low level of transferrin receptor expression. The measurement of transferrin receptors on blasts, instead of the rather complicated G-CSF receptor determination, would be a useful indicator for the safer application of G-CSF in AML patients.