Cellular and molecular approaches to the study of myeloproliferative disorders

Abstract

The spectrum of disorders usually grouped together under the general title of the myeloproliferative syndrome is considered to range from an excessive proliferation with little or no differentiation in the leukemias to minimal proliferation in myelofibrosis. However, it has not been possible to determine whether a common mechanism is present, producing pathological manifestations which differ only in a quantitative way, or alternatively, if the mechanisms of disease are qualitatively different between the leukemias and myelofibrotic disorders, making it unreasonable to group them together. Within the past decade, new approaches to the analysis of hemopoietic differentiation have become available as a result of developments in the fields of cellular and molecular biology. Functional techniques based on the use of developmental criteria for the identification and enumeration of hemopoietic progenitor cells have been coupled with molecular techniques such as those used for the study of RNA tumor viruses and for the isolation and characterization of macromolecules. This combination of methods provides new tools for reassessing the concept of myeloproliferative disorders. © 1975.