The comparative enhancing effects of prostaglandin E1 on colony formation by erythroid progenitor (BFU-E) cells from bone marrow of mice differing in the Fv-2 locus.

Prostaglandin E1(PGE1) was assessed for its colony enhancing effects on erythroid (BFU-E) progenitor cells and for its colony suppressive effects on granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) progenitor cells from bone marrows of mice differing in the Fv-2 locus. The Fv-2 locus has been reported by others to control the proportion of BFU-E, but not of CFU-GM, in DNA synthesis. PGE1 significantly enhanced erythroid colony formation by marrow cells from DBA/2 (Fv-2ss), C57BL/6 (Fv-2rr) and BDF1 (Fv-2rs) mice, but the DBA/2 cells were more sensitive to the PGE1 enhancing effects than were cells from C57BL/6 or BDF1 mice. The enhanced sensitivity of DBA/2 cells to PGE1 was associated with the higher cycling rate of DBA/2-BFU-E in comparison with C57BL/6- and BDF1-BFU-E, and removal of S-phase DBA/2-BFU-E by pulse exposure of cells to high specific activity tritiated thymidine in vitro eliminated the erythroid colony enhancing effects of PGE1. The differences in sensitivity of BFU-E from mice differing in the Fv-2 locus to the effects of PGE1 were verified using Fv-2 congenic mice. In contrast, no significant differences were noted in sensitivity of CFU-GM from these different mouse strains, including mice congenic for the Fv-2 locus, to the suppressive effects of PGE1. This correlated with the similar cycling characteristics of CFU-GM from these mice, and the non-cycle specific effects of PGE1 on mouse CFU-GM. These studies substantiate further the regulatory effects of the Fv-2 locus on mouse erythroid progenitor cells which are a manifestation of the cycling rates of these cells.