Tumor necrosis factor-alpha stimulates colony formation by a megakaryoblastic leukemia cell line, CMK.

The CMK cell line is an acute megakaryoblastic leukemia cell line established from a patient with Down's syndrome, and is known to possess characteristics of normal megakaryocytes. Several cytokines with the ability to stimulate megakaryopoiesis, such as interleukin-3 (IL-3), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), stimulated colony formation by CMK cells. The present study revealed that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) stimulated colony formation by CMK cells; the potency was almost equal to that of IL-3, IL-6 or GM-CSF. Scatchard plot analysis revealed that CMK cells possess two types of specific binding sites for TNF-alpha. The high-affinity binding sites had an affinity constant of 0.18 nM, and numbered 5,000. The low-affinity binding sites had an affinity constant of 1.8 nM and numbered 19,000. These results raise the possibility that TNF-alpha can act as a growth-stimulating agent on megakaryocyte-lineage cell line.