Effect of in vitro treatment with indomethacin on mouse granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells in culture (CFUC). Possible role of prostaglandins.

The effect of indomethacin (6 mg/kg daily orally for 2, 3 or 4 days) on myelopoiesis was studied in mice by estimating 1) differential cell counts of bone marrow, 2) proliferation of the CFUC in presence of GM-CSF, 3) proliferative state of CFUC after tritiated thymidine suicide. After 4 days of treatment, a rise in the recognizable myeloid precursors, an increase of both the colony forming capacity and the number of CFUC in S-phase were observed. These data suggest that indomethacin produced an hyperplasia of the committed stem cell compartment. The decrease of PGE2 amounts in bone marrow cells following treatment with indomethacin could explain the hyperplasia observed. These in vivo results are in accordance with the in vitro data which show that PG could control the proliferation and differentiation of myeloid progenitor cells.