Ontogeny of hematopoietic stem cell development: reciprocal expression of CD33 and a novel molecule by maturing myeloid and erythroid progenitors.

We have identified a molecule expressed by human marrow granulocyte/monocyte colony-forming cells (CFU-GM), erythroid colony-forming cells (CFU-E), and erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-E), but not their precursors detectable in long-term bone marrow culture. This antigen, detected by flow microfluorimetry using monoclonal antibody 7B9, is coexpressed with CD33 on many CD34+ CFCs, although only the 7B9 antigen was detected on a portion of BFU-E and CFU-E, whereas only CD33 was found on a portion of CFU-GM. Antibody 7B9 appears to be useful for isolating subsets of progenitors based on their common or selective expression of 7B9 antigen and CD33.