Growth of clonogenic myeloblastic leukemic cells in the presence of human recombinant erythropoietin in addition to various human recombinant hematopoietic growth factors.

The effects of human recombinant erythropoietin (rEpo) in the presence of other stimulators on the growth of clonogenic leukemic blast cells from ten Japanese patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia were studied with an in vitro leukemic blast colony assay in methylcellulose culture. With the addition of rEpo alone, no leukemic blast colony formation was stimulated in any of the cases examined. However, when rEpo and phytohemagglutinin lymphocyte-conditioned medium (PHA-LCM) were added to the culture simultaneously, in contrast to results with PHA-LCM alone, the number of leukemic blast colonies formed was significantly increased in two of the ten cases (P less than .01). These two cases were classified as M1 according to the French-American-British (FAB) classification. This enhancing effect of rEpo was observed with human recombinant granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rGM-CSF) or human recombinant interleukin-3 (rIL-3) but was not observed with human recombinant granulocyte CSF (rGCSF).