Differentiation of murine B cell precursors in agar culture. II. Response of precursor-enriched populations to growth stimuli and demonstration that the clonable pre-B cell assay is limiting for the B cell precursor.

We established culture conditions under which fetal liver-derived B cell progenitors divide and differentiate in semisolid agar, forming colonies containing antibody-secreting cells. An important feature of this assay system is that, under certain conditions, it is limiting for only one component. This was revealed by determining the slope of the least-squares log-log regression line generated when the initial seeding density was varied. When support for the growth of the clonable pre-B cells was provided by fetal liver-derived adherent accessory cells, the slope of the regression line was 1, consistent with the interpretation that only one component, the pre-B cell, was limiting under these conditions. This interpretation was tested in the present report by positive selection for cells expressing B220, Lyb-2, or AA4.1, surface markers known to be present on cell lines of the B lineage. In all cases, an increased incidence of clonable pre-B cells was observed. Furthermore, regression analysis of titration experiments undertaken with these enriched populations revealed that the assay was still limiting for a single component. A second set of growth conditions have been defined in which the clonable pre-B assay appears to be limiting for more than one component. These conditions are obtained when the adherent accessory cells are replaced by one of three distinct hemopoietic growth factors, including CSF-1 (macrophage growth factor), GM-CSF (neutrophil/macrophage growth factor), or Multi-HGF (multi-lineage hemopoietic growth factor, also called BPA or IL 3). The most straightforward interpretation of these data is that a second cell type, distinct from the B cell precursor and dependent on the growth factors, was limiting under these conditions. In the present report, this hypothesis was confirmed because growth factor responsiveness was completely absent in B220 and Lyb-2-enriched populations. Factor responsiveness was found in unseparated fetal liver and in AA4-enriched populations. However, the AA4-enriched populations, in contrast to the B220- or Lyb-2-enriched populations, also contained a large number of factor-responsive neutrophil/macrophage colonies, raising the possibility that the effect of factors on AA4+ clonable pre-B cells was accessory cell-mediated.