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Apoptotic effect of cyclosporin a and dexamethasone in malignant cells of patients with B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) is a malignant disorder characterized by the accumulation of the leukemic cells in the G0-G1 phase of the cell cycle and expressing high levels of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. Since we observed that the treatment of autoimmune complications with Cyclosporine A (CsA) determined in some CLL patients an improvement not only of the autoimmune phenomena, but also of the leukemic process, we evaluated the in vitro cytotoxicity of CsA as compared to Dexamethasone (Dex) on leukemic cells. Leukemic cells obtained from 32 B-CLL patients showed a heterogeneous pattern of spontaneous apoptosis at 24 h interval and this pattern permitted to identify: Group 1 (14/32) with high (>20%) apoptotic rate and Group 2 (18/32) with low cell death. CsA and Dex increased cell death in both groups with a different timing by an apoptotic mechanism that does not involve Bcl-2. Furthermore, in Group 2, CsA-induced apoptosis was significant higher than that observed with Dex both at 4 and 24 h. We suggest that, in B-CLL, CsA has a significant pro-apoptotic activity manifested also in patients with low spontaneous apoptosis. Our observations might be taken into account to consider new therapeutic strategies in B-CLL.