Maintenance of granulopoiesis in long-term bone marrow cultures from W/Wv mice and effects of lipopolysaccharide on granulopoiesis in culture.

An attempt was made to establish long-term cultures of marrow cells from genetically anaemic W/Wv mice. Two batches of horse sera were used. One batch of horse serum (HS-lot A) supported long-term maintenance (up to 20 weeks) of granulopoiesis in vitro. The number of suspension cells in W/Wv marrow culture was maintained at the same level as that in the control +/+ culture, but the number of granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells (GM-CFC) and the ratio of immature to mature granulocytes were at a lower level than those in +/+ culture. These data suggest that haemopoietic progenitors in W/Wv cultures maintain a higher level of differentiation, and hence an increased self-renewal than those in +/+ cultures. Another batch of horse serum (HS-lot B) was less effective in the maintenance of the cultures, and the cultures deteriorated within 10 weeks. Addition of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced increased granulopoiesis in +/+ cultures, whereas such treatment resulted in the depletion of suspension cells in W/Wv cultures. The results suggest that haemopoietic cells of W/Wv mouse cannot cope with the strong stimulus for differentiation that occurs after the administration of LPS, although the cells can continue a moderately increased self-renewal and differentiation, as indicated by the results in the culture with HS-lot A.