Experiment study of apoptosis of bone marrow cells and TNF-α in myelodysplastic syndromes

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of hematopoietic cells apoptosis in myelodysplastic syn-dromc(MDS) and to explore the relationship between the apoptosis and the TNF-α. Method:The apoptosis of the BMMC was detected by morphological analysis and by TUNEL technique. The concentration of TNF-α in the supernatant of cultured BMMC was measured by ELISA. Result; The percentage of apoptotic cell detected by morphological analysis was significantly increased in MDS contrasted to patients with IDA ( P 0. 01). There was no statistical difference in different subtypes (RA/RAS, RAEB/RAEB-t) ( P 0. 05). The percentage of bone marrow apoptotic cells in MDS tested by TUNEL was higher than that of detected by morphological analysis in the same individuals. The degree of apoptosis increased in RA/RAS contrasted to RAEB/RAEB-t, but there was still no statistical difference ( P 0. 05). The concentration of TNF-α in the supernatant of cultured BMMC from MDS was significantly higher than that in controls ( P 0. 05). The level of TNF-a in RA/RAS was significantly higher than that in RAEB/CMML ( P 0. 05). Conclusion: Apoptosis of bone marrow cells was excessive in patients with MDS. The TNF-α levels of MDS patients were proportional to the degree of apoptosis of bone marrow cells. The method for detecting the apopotic cells by TUNEL was more sensitive than the method by morphological analysis. Apoptosis of bone marrow cells in the early stage of MDS increased than that in the advanced stage.