Erythroid colony formation in cultures of human marrow: effect of leukocyte conditioned medium.

A method, based on the differing capacities of cells to adhere to a column of polyester fibres, has been described for separating human bone marrow cells into a nonadherent and an adherent fraction. The effect of this cell separation procedure on colony formation by erythroid progenitor cells was investigated. In contrast to the unseparated population, it was found that erythropoietin-dependent erythroid colony formation by nonadherent cells could be considerably enhanced by the addition of leukocyte conditioned medium to the cultures. Similar erythroid enhancing activity was also detected in a partially purified preparation of granulocytic colony stimulating activity obtained from human embryo kidney culture supernatants. Erythroid colony formation in the absence of added erythropoietin, by non-adherent bone marrow cells from patients with polycythemia rubra vera, were also enhanced by the addition of LCM to the cultures. This finding suggests that the enhancing factor in LCM may not be dependent on the presence of erythropoietin in the cultures for its activity. While the cellular mechanisms by which leukocyte conditioned medium enhances erythroid growth remain to be determined, the data presented provides strong evidence for the view that the plating efficiency of erythroid progenitor cells is determined not only be the concentration of erythropoietin, but also by the presence of leukocyte conditioned medium in the cultures.