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H Wadenvik, J Kutti, B Ridell, P Revesz, S Jacobsson, B Magnusson, J Westin and L Vilen
Department of Medicine, Ostra Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
In 10 patients with previously untreated essential thrombocythemia (ET), by
using 111In-labeled platelets and megakaryocyte morphometry, the relation
between platelet production rate and bone marrow megakaryocytes was
evaluated before and during alpha-2b-interferon (IFN) therapy. A highly
significant decrease in platelet count occurred during IFN therapy; the
platelet counts, at baseline and after 2 and 6 months of IFN therapy, were
1,102 +/- 345 x 10(9)/L, 524 +/- 169 x 10(9)/L (P less than .0001), and 476
+/- 139 x 10(9)/L (P less than .0001), respectively. The decrement in
platelet count was mainly a result of diminished platelet production rate,
which at baseline and after 2 and 6 months of IFN therapy was 89 +/- 30 x
10(10) platelets/d, 53 +/- 18 x 10(10) platelets/d (P = .0033), and 45 +/-
20 x 10(10) platelets/d (P less than .0001), respectively. Also, a slight
shortening of platelet mean life-span (MLS) was observed in response to IFN
treatment; platelet MLS was 7.96 +/- 0.69 days at baseline and 6.68 +/-
1.30 days (P = .012) after 6 months of IFN therapy. IFN induced a
significant decrease in bone marrow megakaryocyte volume; both
megakaryocyte nuclear and cytoplasmatic volumes were affected. The mean
megakaryocyte volume was 372 +/- 126 x 10(2) pL/microL at baseline and 278
+/- 147 x 10(2) pL/microL (P = .049) after 6 months of IFN therapy.
However, the number of megakaryocytes did not show any significant change
in response to IFN. It is concluded that alpha-IFN reduces platelet
production rate and the peripheral platelet count in ET mainly through an
anti-proliferative action on the megakaryocytes and to a considerably
lesser degree by a shortening of platelet MLS.
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| Copyright © 1991 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||