Biochemical and immunological characterization of ferritin from leukaemic cells.

Ferritin was prepared from the leucocytes of four patients with acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) and eight patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Isoelectric focusing demonstrated a prominent relatively basic band in all the CML cell ferritins. The iron content of all the ferritins was very low (max 180 atom/molecule). Thus there was little evidence for the role of leucocyte ferritin as an iron store or for iron as the major factor responsible for the initiation of ferritin synthesis. The iron uptake properties, subunit analyses, immunological reactivities and other immunological studies indicated that leukaemic cell ferritins had similar properties to tissue ferritins.