Decreased CD10-postitive mature granulocytes in bone marrow from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome

We retrospectively examined the maturation of the granulocytic cell lineage in bone marrow specimens from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) by flow cytometry using both light scatter and surface marker characteristics, including CD10 and myeloid lineage-associated antigens. The 7 MDS cases we studied included 2 patients with refractory anemia (RA), 3 with RA with ringed sideroblasts, 1 with RA with excess of blasts, and 1 unclassified case. Another 7 patients matched for age and sex who received bone marrow aspirates for lymphoma staging (all negative for lymphoma involvement or any other hematologic abnormalities) were selected as the control group. The percentage of CD10(+) mature granulocytes was significantly lower in patients with MDS than in control patients. Additionally, all patients with MDS had less than 50% CD10(+) cells in the granulocytic lineage. In contrast, only 1 of the 7 control patients had less than 50% CD10(+) cells (P