A new procoagulant in acute leukemia
A Falanga, MG Alessio, MB Donati and T Barbui
Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milano.
To verify whether cancer procoagulant (CP), a cysteine proteinase
procoagulant distinct from tissue factor (TF), is associated with leukemic
cells, we assayed the procoagulant activity of blast cell extracts from 26
patients with different cytological subtypes of acute nonlymphoid leukemia
(ANLL) according to the French-American-British classification. All the
samples except two shortened the recalcification time of normal human
plasma, the effect being significantly greater in the M3 subgroup. The two
criteria used to distinguish between CP and TF, independence from factor
VII in initiating blood coagulation and sensitivity to cysteine-proteinase
inhibitors, were positive in 19 samples from M1, M2, M3, and M4 cytological
subtypes. None of the M5 samples fulfilled these criteria. In addition, M1,
M2, M3, and M4 samples immunoreacted with an anti-CP goat polyclonal
antibody on an Ouchterlony immunodiffusion plate. This study provides the
first evidence for a procoagulant other than TF that is associated with
leukemic cells.
Volume 71,
Issue 4,
pp. 870-875,
04/01/1988
Copyright © 1988 by The American Society of Hematology