Circulating thrombomodulin, thrombospondin, and fibronectin in acute myeloblastic leukemias.

In this study, soluble thrombomodulin (TM) was measured as an indicator of endothelial injury in acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) together with fibronectin (FN) and thrombospondin (TS). The study group comprised of 17 (6 men, 11 women; aged 34 +/- 10 years; range 21-61 years) newly diagnosed AML patients. There was infection in 6 patients. Twelve (4 men, 8 women; aged 31 +/- 11 years; range 18-55 years) healthy subjects were studied as the control group. Plasma soluble TM levels were significantly higher in AML patients than in the healthy control group (116.6 +/- 13.7 vs 37.2 +/- 1.75 ng/ml, respectively (mean +/- SEM), p < 0.01). Plasma FN levels were found to be significantly higher in AML patients compared to the control group (15.9 +/- 2.69 vs 8.1 +/- 2.46 ng/ml, respectively (mean +/- SEM). p < 0.01 ). Plasma FN levels in infected patients were significantly lower than in non-infected patients (6.47 +/- 1.3 vs 21.0 +/- 3.1 ng/ml, respectively (mean +/- SD), p < 0.01). Plasma TS levels in the patient group were significantly lower than in the control group (20.6 +/- 1.45 vs 120.8 +/- 18.2 ng/ml, respectively (mean +/- SEM), p < 0.01). In one patient with M7 megakaryoblastic leukemia who also had a high platelet count, plasma TS levels were significantly higher than that in other patients.