Effects of T cells and monocytes on globin chain synthesis in erythroid bursts cultured from human peripheral blood burst-forming units (BFU-e).

Globin chain synthesis was studied in mature erythroid bursts cultured from the peripheral blood null cells of 21 normal individuals. Although coculture of autologous T-lymphocytes with null cells resulted in a fivefold increase in the yield of erythroid bursts, the proportion of gamma chains synthesized (gamma/gamma + beta) was not significantly different from that seen without T cells. Coculture with autologous monocytes also resulted in increased burst-forming unit (BFU-e) proliferation but the ratio gamma/gamma + beta (0.25 +/- 0.03) was significantly higher than that seen with null cells alone (0.08 +/- 0.006) or with T cells (0.10 +/- 0.008). The relative increase in gamma-chain synthesis correlated with the severity of megaloblastic changes in erythroid progeny of BFU-e (P less than 0.01) but showed no significant relationship to the extent of colony maturation assessed by erythroblast maturity.