Bone marrow cell liquid cultures were incubated at various oxygen concentrations ranging from 0% to 18% (air). The total number of cells in culture (CT) at the end of a 6-day incubation was found to be directly proportional to the oxygen concentration. As compared with air- incubated controls, cells recovered from severely hypoxic (1% oxygen) day-5 liquid cultures showed (1) the same day-7 colony-formation efficiency in semisolid culture (neutrophilic/monocytic colonies) or in spleen; (2) a higher day-14 spleen colony-formation efficiency; (3) an enhanced radio-protection ability; and (4) an increased marrow repopulation ability, as measured by determining either total cell number in recipient marrow MRAcell, or the capacity of the latter of generating day-7 neutrophilic/monocytic colonies in secondary in vitro assays (MRACFU-NM). Taking into account CT, the absolute numbers of progenitors in culture were also computed. The results showed that, with respect to time 0, incubation in air produced an increase in the number of day-7 CFUs and a decrease in the number of the other progenitors, whereas in hypoxic cultures all types of progenitors decreased. However, as compared with air-incubated controls, all progenitors, except cells sustaining MRACFU-NM, were reduced in hypoxic cultures. The degree of reduction paralleled the position of the progenitor in the hematopoietic hierarchy, being maximum for day-7 CFUs and null for cells sustaining MRACFU-NM, which, in fact, were better preserved in hypoxic cultures.

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We developed previously a hypoxic culture system in which progenitors endowed with marrow-repopulating ability (MRA), unlike committed progenitors, were selected and maintained better than in air. We report here an improvement to this system targeted at combining the maintenance of progenitors sustaining MRA with the numerical expansion of multipotent and committed progenitors. Murine bone marrow cells were incubated at 1% oxygen in liquid medium supplemented with stem cell factor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interleukin-6 and interleukin-3. In day 8 hypoxic cultures, the numbers of high proliferative potential and granulocyte/macrophage colony-forming cells (HPP-CFC and CFU-GM) were increased with respect to time zero. Colonies generated by HPP-CFC derived from hypoxic cultures exhibited a high replating ability, whereas colonies generated by HPP-CFC derived from control cultures exhibited a low replating ability. MRA was fully maintained in hypoxia and markedly reduced in air. Thus, severe hypoxia is able to ensure a full maintenance of progenitors sustaining MRA, together with a significant expansion of in vitro-detectable clonogenic progenitors, including those endowed with replating ability. This system could contribute to the improvement of current techniques for the in vitro treatment of human haematopoietic cell populations before transplantation.

In liquid cultures of murine bone marrow cells stimulated with interleukin-3 and granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor, hypoxia (1% oxygen) induced a reversible block of hematopoiesis, maintaining the progenitors' expansion potential unreduced. Progenitors repopulating day-14 hypoxic cultures with cells or granulocyte/macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM) were found, on the basis of their maintenance in hypoxia (12% and 76%, respectively), to belong to different subsets, the latter being much more efficiently maintained. The maintenance in hypoxic cultures of progenitors detectable by marrow-repopulating ability (MRA) assay was 18% for MRA cell progenitors and 69% for MRA CFU progenitors. Thus, the repopulation of hypoxic cultures with cells or CFU-GM closely reflected the presence of progenitors capable of repopulating, with cells or CFU-GM, the bone marrow of lethally irradiated syngeneic animals. Progenitors repopulating hypoxic cultures were, like MRA progenitors, significantly resistant to 5-fluorouracil, progenitors repopulating cultures with CFU-GM being two-fold more resistant than those repopulating cultures with cells. We concluded that the repopulation of day-14 hypoxic cultures occurring after their transfer to air is to be considered an indicator of the maintenance of MRA progenitors in hypoxia. The relevance of these results to stem cell biology and their potential practical applications are discussed. Leukemia (2000) 14, 735-739.