In vitro differentiation of B lymphocytes from primitive hemopoietic precursors present in long-term bone marrow cultures.

B lymphocytes are not produced in the Dexter long-term bone marrow cultures, but a primitive B cell precursor is present. The findings presented in this study demonstrate that this precursor can be induced to produce B lymphocytes by transferring the cultures to the Whitlock conditions for the long-term growth of B cells in vitro. Two weeks after the transfer of cultures maintained at 33 degrees C in medium supplemented with horse serum and steroids to low concentrations of fetal calf serum at 37 degrees C, marked effects can be observed. The pattern of cell growth changes from one in which the hemopoietic cells are clustered in tight foci containing several hundred cells to smaller ones in which the cells are not as densely packed. Fat cells in the adherent layer disappear and the supporting stroma becomes more uniform in appearance. This change in the culture format is accompanied by a decrease in the number of nonadherent cells and a shift from myelopoiesis to lymphopoiesis. The numbers of granulocyte-macrophage progenitors decline weekly after the change in culture conditions and are not detected by the third week. B cell colony-forming units appear by 3 wk. Cells that express the 14.8 cell surface antigen are induced by 1 wk after the change in culture conditions, followed by the appearance of surface IgM-bearing cells 2 wk later. This shift to lymphopoiesis can be confirmed morphologically. Granulocytes and macrophages disappear from the cultures by 4 wk, at which time almost all of the cells have a characteristic lymphocyte morphology. Upon switching these cultures back to the original Dexter conditions, only low levels of transient myelopoiesis can be reinitiated.