PMID: 7524739Nov 15, 1994Paper

Growth of erythroid colonies in chronic myelogenous leukemia is independent of erythropoietin only in the presence of steel factor.

Blood
C Issaad, William Vainchenker

Abstract

The mechanisms of the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) clones proliferative advantage over normal clones are currently unknown. They may involve an insensitivity to a negative regulation of a growth factor-independent proliferation. Clonogenic progenitors from CML patient blood or marrow in chronic phase were grown either in the presence or absence of recombinant growth factors. No erythroid colonies were observed in the absence of any cytokine. In contrast, erythroid colonies composed of fully mature hemoglobinized erythroblasts (day 12 burst-forming units-erythroid) were obtained in the presence of Steel factor (SF) alone. Addition of erythropoietin (Epo) to SF either had no effect on the cloning efficiency or increased up to 50% the number of erythroid colonies. No erythroid growth was observed when cultures were stimulated by interleukin-3 or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor alone. Similar erythroid growth in the presence of SF but without Epo was obtained in "serum-free" cultures when purified blood CML CD34+ cells were grown. This growth of erythroid colonies in the absence of Epo was not accounted for by an autocrine stimulation loop by Epo, because neutralizing antibodies against Epo did not inhibit it. Th...Continue Reading