Interleukin 3 can compensate for the deficiency in erythroid burst-forming cells in anemic mice of genotype W/Wv.

Bone marrow cells from mice with the W/Wv mutation have about one-third the erythroid burst-forming cells (BFU-E) found with wild-type littermates. The mutant cells are also less responsive in vitro to exogenous erythropoietin (epo) than are the wild-type cells. Addition of interleukin 3 (IL-3) to the culture medium largely corrects the deficit in burst formation and in responsiveness to epo. When mutant cells are incubated for 2 days in the absence of epo but with IL-3 present, burst formation is the same as with wild-type cells, suggesting that IL-3 acts on maintenance in vitro and/or proliferation of primitive precursor cells of both mutant and wild-type mice.