Mice demonstrate clinical and hematopoietic response to STI571 treatment.
(A) An STI571-treated animal (top) is compared with placebo-treated animal (bottom) on day 21 after reconstitution with BM cells transduced with P210BCR/ABL retrovirus. Note the overall weakened appearance of the placebo-treated animal, including decreased skin turgor, reflecting volume depletion due to decreased oral intake in the setting of massive hepatosplenomegaly. In contrast, the STI571-treated animal demonstrates no clinical evidence of illness. (B) A ventral view of the same mice demonstrating the pronounced abdominal distention of the placebo-treated animal (left) secondary to marked hepatosplenomegaly (arrows), which is lacking in the STI571-treated mouse. (C-D) A representative blood smear and spleen from a placebo-treated (C) and STI571-treated (D) mouse, demonstrating the significant reduction in granulocytosis and splenomegaly obtained in STI571-responding animals. The respective white blood cell count (WBC) and spleen size and weight are also shown (lower panels). For the sake of comparison, the average WBC and spleen weight of control healthy mice (no. = 3) of the same strain and age are 8400/μL and 95.5 mg, respectively.
