Separation of human blast progenitors from granulocytic, erythroid, megakaryocytic, and mixed colony-forming cells by "panning" on cultured marrow-derived stromal layers.

Primitive myeloid progenitor cells will adhere to stromal feeder layers of human bone-marrow-derived adherent cells grown in the presence of methylprednisolone (MP+ layers). These progenitors form colonies of blast cells on the MP+ stromal layers, but not on stromal layers grown in the absence of MP (MP- layers). The present study was designed to determine whether this failure of colony formation was caused by inability of the progenitors to adhere to the MP- layers or inability to proliferate in their presence. We also compared the capacities of the blast progenitors to adhere to MP+ and MP- stromal cells with those of mixed (GEMM-CFC), erythroid (BFU-E), megakaryocytic (Mk-CFC), and granulocyte-macrophage (GM-CFC) colony-forming cells. Incubation of bone marrow mononuclear cells with MP+ stromal layers removed 90% of the blast progenitors, but did not remove the majority of the GEMM-CFC, BFU-E, Mk-CFC, and GM-CFC; incubation of bone marrow mononuclear cells with MP- stromal layers did not remove the blast progenitors or the GEMM-CFC, BFU-E, Mk-CFC, and GM-CFC. Thus, the blast progenitors adhere to MP+ stromal feeder layers, but not to MP- stromal layers. In this respect they differ from the other more mature colony-forming cells that do not show any marked tendency to adhere to either type of stromal layer.