Rita Michalevicz

A and B blood group antigen expression on mixed colony cells and erythroid precursors: relevance for human allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Using anti‐A and anti‐B blood group monoclonal antibodies and fluorescent activated cell sorting of human bone marrow, A (or B) blood group antigen was shown to be on 5.2 ± 5.9 (meanfSD) % of CFU‐GEMM and 12 ± 5 ± 19.6% of the erythroid burst forming cells (designated BFU‐GEMM) as defined by the mixed colony assay, and 49.5±20% of the BFU‐E and 83.5±9.9% of the CFU‐E as defined by the erythroid colony assay. This antigen expression on the BFU‐GEMM is consistent with the concept that erythroid bursts stimulated by leucocyte conditioned medium are less mature, and are closer in development to the pluripotent stem cell than the BFU‐E. These results help to explain the delayed erythropoiesis, and perhaps impaired engraftment of all cell lineages, that may occur in some recipients of ABO incompatible bone marrow transplants, with persistent and high anti‐A titres.

Platelet‐derived growth factor stimulates growth of highly enriched multipotent haemopoietic progenitors

Platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) has been shown to stimulate growth of normal and malignant fibroblasts, glial cells and smooth muscle cells. A growth promoting effect on human haemopoietic precursors has also been described, but the interpretation of this haemopoietic proliferative response to PDGF has been hampered by the lack of purity of the target population. In this study we show that PDGF promotes growth of early bone marrow haemopoietic progenitors depleted of either monocytes or T lymphocytes which are known to influence haemopoiesis. Moreover, the action of PDGF is even increased on a highly enriched BI‐3C5 early bone marrow population. BI‐3C5 is a novel monoclonal antibody which recognizes an antigen present on all multilineage colony‐forming cells (CFU‐mix) (Tindle et al, 1985). BI‐3C5 positively and negatively sorted fractions were obtained by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) and PDGF was found to stimulate growth of CFU‐mix in the BI‐3C5‐positive fraction (consisting of only 4–6% of the marrow population), the effect being more marked than that on unsorted bone marrow. The results suggest that the product of the cellular proto‐oncogene c‐sis (the putative structural gene for the β chain of PDGF) may play a regulatory role in the in vivo proliferation of multipotent haemopoietic progenitors.

Interleukin-2 induces rapid phosphorylation of an 85 kilodalton protein in permeabilized lymphocytes

Lymphocytes were induced to express receptors for interleukin-2 by stimulation for 5 days with phytohaemagglutinin and subsequently permeabilized by treatment with L-alpha-lysophosphatidylcholine. Phosphorylation of an 85 kDa protein was stimulated when these cells were treated with interleukin-2 or with an antibody directed against the interleukin-2 receptor.

Chronic myeloid leukaemia and the philadelphia translocation: Do the C-SIS oncogene and platelet-derived growth factor provide the link?

The study of cellular oncogenes and of chromosomal abnormalities in human tumours has, in several instances, suggested a link between a specific oncogene translocation and oncogenesis. It was recently suggested that the translocation of the c-abl gene (the human cellular homologue of the transforming sequence of Abelson murine leukaemia virus) from chromosome 9 to 22 in Philadelphia translocation, might have a role in the generation of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). We propose an alternative hypothesis and suggest that the translocation of another gene, c-sis, may be more important.

The role of platelet-derived growth factor on human pluripotent progenitor (CFU-GEMM) growth in vitro

The effect of serum on the proliferation of human bone marrow pluripotent progenitor cells (CFU-GEMM), was compared to that of fresh frozen plasma (FFP). Serum significantly increased the number of mixed erythroid-granulocytic-megakaryocytic colonies (CFU-GEMM) and erythrocytic bursts (BFU-E) in this assay system (p less than 0.01 and 0.02, respectively). Two possible explanations for this finding were considered: first the presence of citrate-phosphate-dextrose (CPD) in plasma but not in serum, and second the presence of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) in serum but not in plasma. CPD was indeed found to have an inhibitory effect on growth of colonies of all types when added to serum-stimulated cultures. Nevertheless, when heparinized plasma was compared to serum from the same donors, growth of CFU-GEMM and BFU-E was higher in the serum-stimulated cultures (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.05, respectively). PDGF at concentrations of 120-240 pM was found to enhance the formation of CFU-GEMM and BFU-E by three- and four-fold respectively when added to cultures containing FFP but not when added to cultures containing serum derived from whole blood (WBS). Purified PDGF added at the same concentrations, to cultures containing platelet-poor derived serum (PDS), promoted similar increases in growth of CFU-GEMM and BFU-E but not of granulocytic-macrophage or megakaryocytic colonies. Whether PDGF has a direct action on CFU-GEMM or its growth promoting activity is via an interacting cell population is currently being studied.

Effect of platelet-derived growth factor on enriched populations of haemopoietic progenitors from patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia

The effect of pure platelet-derived growth factor and fresh serum on the in-vitro growth of purified haemopoietic progenitors from the peripheral blood of 12 patients with CML was studied. Purified haemopoietic progenitors were prepared using Percoll separation followed by cell sorting with the monoclonal antibody BI.3C5. Both pure PDGF at a concentration of 20 ng/ml and fresh serum significantly increased the numbers of BFU-E (p less than 0.01) and CFU-GEMM (p less than 0.014), but not the CFU-GM. That the PDGF effect was not mediated to any significant extent via prostaglandins, was shown by the lack of inhibitory effect of indomethacin on the growth of purified progenitor cells in the presence of fresh serum. Increased amounts of pure PDGF were required to give maximal stimulation of purified CML peripheral blood progenitors compared to normal bone marrow progenitors. These results show that CML progenitors are capable of responding to PDGF. Whether the quantitative difference in response is due to a reduced proportion of mesenchymal cells in CML peripheral blood compared to normal marrow, or whether CML progenitors are most likely already stimulated by autocrime PDGF or other growth factors remains to be elucidated.

Characterization of lympho-myeloid-erythroid-megakaryocytic stem cells in peripheral blood of hairy cell leukemia patients☆

Circulating stem cells with lympho-myeloid-erythroid differentiative capacity have been described in the peripheral blood of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) patients (Michalevicz R. & Revel M. (1987) Interferons regulate the in vitro differentiation of multilineage lympho-myeloid stem cells in Hairy Cell Leukemia. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 2307.) The aim of the present work was to enrich the progenitors and characterize their antigenic and growth properties. Peripheral blood (PB) from HCL patients was stained with antibodies (BI3C5 (CD34) and/or My10 as well as RFB7 (CD20) and RFT12 (CD7) and sorted using flow cytometry (FCM) into positive and negative fractions. Peripheral blood cells from several patients showed 4-16% cells positive for the BI3C5/My10. The positive fraction contained all the colony-forming cells and LGEM/LG/LGM colonies were enriched approximately ten-fold as compared to the unsorted population. No colony was found in the negative fraction. All colony forming cells were in the RFB7 and RFT12-negative fractions. Thus, circulating stem cells with lymphoid/myeloid potential can be isolated from PB of HCL patients.

JM, A Thy-all cell line produces both inhibitory and stimulatory lymphokines for bone marrow progenitor cells

Normal and malignant T cells as well as T-cell hybridomas have frequently been reported to produce factors which stimulate the growth of committed hemopoietic progenitors. One previous report described a lymphokine produced by a T-cell clone which inhibited hemopoietic progenitor cell proliferation. We now describe the simultaneous production of two activities by a Thy-ALL cell line (JM), a sub-line of Jurkat. Two sets of culture conditions were used: the Fauser & Messner and Iscoves assays. We have been able to separate both inhibitory and stimulatory factors for the growth of multipotent and committed bone marrow progenitors (CFU-GEMM, BFU-E, CFU-E and CFU-GM). The stimulatory factor has an apparent mol. wt of less than 30,000 and the inhibitor an apparent mol. wt of 65-80,000. The growth promoting activity for BFU-E and CFU-GEMM could replace that of phytohemagglutinin stimulated leucocyte conditioned medium (PHA-LCM). We do not know if the production of both activities is due to the malignant phenotype or if there is a normal counterpart to JM that could produce both inhibitory and stimulatory factors.

The effect of the leukemic cell line HL60 and acute myeloblastic leukemic cells before and after induction of differentiation on normal pluripotent hematopoietic progenitors (CFU-GEMM)

A leukemic cell line (HL60) and acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells from six patients were co-cultured with normal marrow cells to assess their effects on growth of normal CFU-GEMM. The effects of the following inducers: 12-0-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA), retinoic acid (RA), dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO), 1-25 (OH) D3 (Vitamin D3) and PHA-LCM on both the HL60 and AML cells, were studied. Inhibition of growth of normal CFU-GEMM was observed in the co-cultures in the presence of 1 X 10(4) HL60 or AML leukemic cells/ml. This inhibition was reversed by pretreating the HL60 line with vitamin D3, TPA and RA. No effect on growth of CFU-GEMM was noted when DMSO and PHA-LCM were used. AML cells were morphologically induced to differentiate by TPA or RA in all six cases. In three cases, reversal of inhibition of growth of normal pluripotent hemopoietic progenitors occurred and in three the inhibition of growth persisted. Regulation of inhibition by different inducers did not seem to correlate in all cases with morphological differentiation.