Study on the proliferative state of haemopoietic stem cells (CFU).

Hydroxyurea was used to study the proliferation rate of haemopoietic stem cells (CFUs) in normal mice, after irradiation or transplantation into irradiated recipients. It was demonstrated that the proliferation rated of endogenous CFUs (endo-CFUs) and exogenous CFUs (exo-CFUs) are identical. After irradiation (650 R) the surviving endo-CFUs begin to proliferate immediately. By contrast exo-CFUs transplanted into the irradiated recipient mouse (850 R), begin to proliferate only after about 30 hr. However, injection of isoproterenol (which stimulates adenyl cyclase) or dibutyryl cyclic adenosin 3',5'-monophosphate shortly after marrow cell graft, triggers the transplanted CFUs into cell cycle as shown by an almost immediately increased sensitivity to hydroxyurea. Isoproterenol is capable of inducing DNA synthesis also in stem cells of normal mice but it takes about 20 hr before CFUs become to be increasingly sensitive to hydroxyurea.