Bone marrow biopsy instead of 'marrow juice' for cell kinetic analysis comparison of bone marrow biopsy and aspiration material

Since cell kinetic bone marrow studies have so far exclusively been carried out on aspiration material and have yielded inconsistent or even contradictory results, we investigated the adequacy and reliability of aspirates for cell kinetic analyses in comparison to biopsies. Paired samples of bone marrow (133) were taken simultaneously by aspiration and Jamshidi biopsy from 48 patients with acute leukemias and 67 patients with non-leukemic disorders. Cell kinetic analysis by (1) flow cytometry (FCM) of cellular DNA and RNA content, (2) autoradiography for [³H]TdR pulse labelling indices and (3) liquid scintillation counting of [³H]TdR uptake revealed significantly higher values in biopsies (p < 0.001) exceeding the corresponding results from aspirates on average by factors of 1.65 for FCM S-phase index, 1.90 for G _{0 1} cells with high RNA content, 1.82 for [³H]TdR LI and 1.90 for [³H]TdR uptake. In more than 70% of all samples results from biopsies were 1.1-11.4 times higher, indicating that aspirates were equivalent to biopsies in fewer than 30% of cases. Cell kinetic analysis of in vitro blood/biopsy mixtures and measurements of DNA synthesis rate in corresponding aspirates and biopsies revealed that these discrepancies are due to the contamination of aspirates with non-proliferating nucleated blood cells. Biopsy, however, was found to provide representative and reproducible sampling of marrow for cell kinetic studies and should replace the presently used aspirate already characterized as "unreliable marrow juice" by Dameshek et al. in 1937 [18].