Experiments on long-term murine bone marrow cultures indicate that the production and maintenance of the hematopoietic stem cell is dependent on the establishment of an adherent monolayer and a secondary repopulation of the culture with fresh marrow. In contrast, we have found that bone marrow cultures derived from the Syrian hamster do not require a repopulation step and produce stem cells that proliferate and differentiate for more than 12 wk in the absence of an adherent layer. Stem cells were grown in Fisher's medium (pH 7.0–7.2) containing 20% horse serum in a fully humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air at 37 degrees C. Cultures were fed twice weekly by removal of half of the medium and supernatant cells and replacement with an equal volume of fresh medium. No hormones or exogenous growth factors were required for the maintenance of myeloid cells, monocytes, and megakaryocytes in either the adherent or suspension cells cultures.
Production of lymphoid and myeloid growth regulatory factors by hematopoietic cells is well documented. On the other hand, the major site of production of erythropoietin (Epo), which regulates physiologic red blood cell development, is thought to be the kidney. Here we report the isolation of multiple erythroleukemia cell lines that produce erythropoietic factors and present extensive biological, immunologic, and biochemical evidence to document that the active agent is Epo. The erythropoietic activity was neutralized by Epo antiserum and exhibited physical properties indistinguishable from those of human and sheep Epo. Positive lines produced between 0.1 and 1.5 U/mL of Epo, which stimulated erythropoiesis in vivo and in vitro in nine biological assays. Twenty sublines derived from single cells were inducible for hemoglobin and spectrin synthesis. All the sublines produced Epo. Production of the hormone continued when the cells were seeded in the absence of serum. Our finding that multiple independent isolates produce Epo raises the possibility that Epo production by erythroid precursors may play a role in normal erythropoiesis or, alternatively, that Epo gene activation may be a relatively common occurrence that contributes to, or is associated with, certain forms of virus-induced leukemias.
In contrast to the murine system, long-term hamster bone marrow suspension cultures maintain proliferation of both pluripotent and committed stem cells in the absence of an adherent layer and without addition of exogenous factors, such as hydrocortisone. Addition of pokeweed-mitogen-stimulated hamster spleen conditioned medium (SCM) to these long-term suspension cultures produces an increase in the number of mixed colonies assayed in soft-agar, These mixed colonies, which contained four cell lineages--granulocytic, erythroid, megakaryocytic, and macrophage--could be generated from cells grown in suspension for over 6 mo. Addition of SCM also induces an initial rapid expansion of the myeloid compartment, and this expansion results in 70% of the cells being terminally differentiated granulocytes. In contrast, addition of SCM to hamster bone marrow cultures containing both adherent cells and hematopoietic stem cells produced no change in the number of mixed colonies generated in the culture. This system allows the in vitro study of the process of stem cell proliferation and differentiation and also provides a means to examine the relationship of adherent and supernatant bone marrow populations.
In long-term hamster bone marrow cultures, proliferation and differentiation of hemopoietic stem cells occurs for several months without need for hydrocortisone or adherent stromal elements, which are requirements for bone marrow growth in all other species studied. Only the most primitive erythroid progenitors (BFU-E) are produced in the cultures. Following treatment of the cells with erythropoietin, these progenitor cells undergo differentiation into mature hemoglobinized red blood cells. Concomitant addition of erythropoietin (Epo) and prostaglandin-E1 (PGE1) results in the production of large numbers of maturing red blood cells. In cultures stimulated with Epo and PGE1, as many as 70% of the cells are benzidine-positive, while Epo alone stimulated as many as 45% of the cells to become erythroid. Epo and PGE1 do not have any apparent deleterious effect on the continuous hemopoiesis occurring in these cultures. Under identical conditions, syngeneic adherent cell cultures do not produce any erythroid elements. The development of mature red blood cells from primitive erythroid precursors occurs in the presence of Epo alone and without any apparent need for adherent stromal elements. These cultures provide a useful in vitro model for dissecting the positive and negative signals that regulate erythropoiesis.
Alterations in nuclear proteins during maturation may be responsible for gene activation and repression. Study of these proteins requires: (1) a system for separating cells into varying degrees of maturity, and (2) a procedure for separating the nuclear proteins. The former was accomplished using Ficoll/Hypaque density gradients to separate rabbit granulocyte precursors. Erythrocytes and their precursors were removed by hypotonic lysis. Histones were extracted from purified nuclei with sulfuric acid, and analyzed on polyacrylamide gels containing urea. Residual non-histone proteins were separated by electrophoresis on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. Quantitation of nuclear proteins during development shows no change in the histones, but a significant increase in the non-histone proteins. Therefore, the ratio of non-histone to histones increases progressively during maturation. Histone electrophoresis revealed no significant qualitative or quantitative changes in their five major classes during development. By contrast, electrophoretic analysis of the non-histone proteins revealed distinct changes which include a striking decrease in low molecular weight protein during maturation, and also certain changes in other peptide bands. These changes may reflect alterations in nuclear structure, a changing complement of the nuclear proteins involved in genetic regulation, or a combination of both.
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