Marrow Plasma Levels of Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1α in Patients with Hematopoietic Malignancies Might Be Associated with the Migration of Leukemic Cells.

The chemokine, stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), which is mostly produced by marrow stromal cells, has various effects on hematopoietic cell functions. Its crucial role in the survival, trafficking, and homing of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells is currently established. Here we described the potential significance of bone marrow plasma levels of SDF-1α in patients with hematopoietic malignancies. The bone marrow plasma was obtained from 74 aspirate samples from 38 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 12 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 24 myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The concentration of SDF-1α was determined by a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results revealed a significant negative correlation of marrow plasma levels of SDF-1 with peripheral white blood cells counts (r=−0.304, P<0.05). The patients with low or normal WBC count (<=10×10⁹/L) had significantly higher SDF-1 levels than those with high WBC count (>10×10⁹/L) (358.88±251.64 pg/mL vs 149.33±129.16 pg/mL, P<0.001). The correlation of SDF-1α levels with platelet counts was also observed (r=0.279, P=0.002). No statistically significant differences were observed in the marrow plasma levels of SDF-1α between normal and abnormal karyotypic groups. There was no significant difference between patients with AML and ALL (279.24±318.50 pg/mL vs 209.78±120.96 pg/mL, P>0.05), however, MDS patients had significantly higher SDF-1α levels (528.65±351.57 pg/mL) than AML and ALL patients (P<0.001). In the subtypes of AMLs, granulocytic leukemia has higher marrow plasma levels of SDF-1α (337.81±350.92 pg/mL, n=28) than mononuclear leukemia (104.94±96.12 pg/mL, n=7). Our results suggest that the migration of malignant leukemic hematopoietic cells, especially of mononuclear leukemic cells, might be associated with the marrow SDF-1α level.