Ex vivo expansion and genetic marking of primitive human and baboon hematopoietic cells.

The achievement of positive outcomes in many clinical protocols involving hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) has been handicapped by the limited numbers of marrow repopulating cells available to actually bring about therapy. This insufficiency has been especially problematic in stem cell transplantation and gene therapy. A number of studies have been initiated to attempt expansion of HSCs, mainly by manipulation of key cytokines in cell suspension cultures.

Polymerase chain reaction-based diagnosis of del (5q) in acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome identifies a minimal deletion interval.

Loss of all or part of the long arm of human chromosome 5 is a recurrent abnormality in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), especially after chemotherapy for a prior malignancy. It is one of the worst prognostic indicators in AML, associated with chemotherapy resistance and short survival. These deletions center at band 5q31, which has thus been proposed as the location of a tumor suppressor gene; this site is to be distinguished from that observed in 5q- syndrome, centering at 5q32.