Granulocytic-macrophagic and macrophagic colony stimulating factors elicit colonies of mast cells in mouse bone marrow agar culture. An electron microscope study.

Granulocytic-macrophagic colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and macrophagic colony stimulating factor (M-CSF or CSF-1) stimulate bone marrow cells of mouse to produce in semisolid agar colonies in which mononuclear cells were reported to be macrophages. We verified in such colonies the ultrastructure of the mononuclear cells which had cytoplasmic granules of the mast cells and lacked lysosomes, therefore we considered them as mast cells. However, the granules content did not reach the degree of condensation typically found in granules of mouse peritoneal mature mast cells. The mast cells of colonies obtained in agar can be mast cells arrested at some point in the maturative process, mast cells of a yet unrecognized type or cells with mast cells ultrastructural features which behave as precursors for cells of myeloid lineage.