[Demonstration of erythroblastic differentiation after 14 days in blood in vitro during Vaquez's disease without addition of erythropoietin].

Leucocytes of normal individuals and patients with polycythemia vera were isolated from the peripheral blood by Ficoll-Hipaque density gradient centrifugation and cultured in vitro suing the bovine plasma clot culture technique with a minor modification: the addition of fresh normal serum. After 14 days in the presence of sheep erythropoïetin (3U/ml) erythropoïetic bursts containing between 3 and 10 subcolonies were observed in normal and polycythemia vera cultures. Blood leucocytes of patients with polycythemia vera rise to these erythropoïetic bursts without addition of erythropoïetin to the culture. This behavior was never observed in the blood of normal individuals. These results indicate that in polycythemia vera commited erythroïd stem cells of high proliferative capacity closely resembling the murine erythroïd burst forming unit have an abnormal sensitivity to erythropoïetin as well as the immediate precursors of the proerythroblasts. The culture of these cells from the peripheral blood offers some practical advantages.