Growth enhancement and serum replacement in cloning of murine mastocytoma and granulocyte/macrophage precursor cells: two distinct activities present in hemolysates.

In the present study we investigated the serum replacing and enhancing activities of erythrocyte lysates, obtained from different animal species, on the growth of murine mastocytoma cells and normal granulocyte/macrophage precursor cells (CFU-C) present in bone marrow. The soft agar technique for cloning hemopoietic cells in vitro was used to quantitate the growth of these cells in culture. Rat, rabbit, guinea pig, mouse and sheep hemolysates were tested for their capacity to replace or to enhance serum as a growth promoter. All hemolysates except mouse were able to replace serum efficiently when mastocytoma cells were cloned. On the other hand, only rat hemolysate proved to be efficient for cloning normal murine CFU-C. Since increasing the concentration of hemolysates in the soft agar medium did not change these results, the differences in activity are unlikely to reflect quantitative variations. However, hemolysates with little or no serum replacing capacity enhanced the clonal growth of normal CFU-C when added to small amounts (2.5%) of horse serum. Trypsin treatment of rat hemolysate destroyed its serum replacing capacity but not its enhancing activity. No correlation was found between the amount of hemoglobin and the replacing activity of each hemolysate. The data obtained in the present study point to the presence of at least two distinct activities in hemolysate: serum replacing and growth enhancing capacities.