Abstract
The clinical significance of initial DEAE chromatography of glucocorticoid binders in lymphoblastic disease was evaluated in an animal model. Domestic cats and dogs with lymphoblastic disease were treated with prednisone, 2 mg/kg/day, for 14 days, and the outcome of therapy was correlated with DEAE chromatograms of glucocorticoid binders, using 3H-triamcinolone as ligand. Six of 30 animals had a single-peak low-salt binder species, similar to that seen in a subset of human leukemia, and none of these responded. Of the 29 animals with chromatograms identical to normal tissues, 6 had a complete response and another 11 a partial response. This distribution of responders is statistically significant (p = 0.02). Thus, the leukemia-associated single-peak DEAE species appears to be associated with glucocorticoid resistance, as defined by clinical responsiveness. In contrast, the two- peak normal pattern is a necessary, but insufficient, criterion for defining responsive disease.
