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Summary Several mouse monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) considered specific for the myeloid lineage recognize the same carbohydrate structure (3-fucosyl-N-acetyl-lac-tosamine) which is similar to the murine antigen SSEA-I. We have investigated the expression of this antigen with six different well-characterized murine IgM MoAbs on normal, leukaemic, and cultured cells by immunofluorescence and immuno-electron microscope cytochemistry. The cells were studied before and after neuraminidase treatment since epitopes recognized by these MoAbs may be masked by sialic acid. Among the recognizable normal marrow or blood cells, all these MoAbs specifically labelled the granulocytic lineage from the promyelocyte to the polymorph. After neuraminidase treatment, monocytes became labelled. All the other lineages remained unstained. Several cell lines were studied. Six of eight lymphoblastoid cell lines were stained by these MoABs; reactivity was increased by neuraminidase. One Burkitt cell line and two T cell lines were also found to be positive. These antibodies were tested on leukaemic cells. In acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia they usually labelled promyelocytes, more mature granulocytic and monocytic precursors but did not label myeloblasts; after neuraminidase treatment, these myeloblasts became stained. No labelling was observed on leukaemic proerythroblasts and promegakaryoblast before and after neuraminidase treatment except in one case of promegakaryoblastic leukaemia in which the SSEA-I antigen and platelet peroxidase were expressed in the same cell. In addition, six cases of common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia were studied; the blasts became positive after desialylation. Two examples of T cell acute leukaemia were essentially negative. We conclude, therefore, that the reactivity of haemopoietic cells with these MoAbs alone does not represent a criterion sufficient to sustain their myeloid origin since the SSEA-I antigen may be expressed at the surface of all cell lineages in the early phases of haemopoietic differentiation.

Previous studies have shown that tumor necrosis factors (TNFs) inhibit the proliferative effects of crude or purified colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) on low density human bone marrow cell fractions. In the present study we investigated the effects of TNF alpha on the growth of highly purified CD34+ human hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) in response to recombinant CSFs. In short-term liquid cultures (5 to 8 days), TNF alpha strongly potentiates interleukin-3 (IL-3) and granulocyte-macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF)-induced growth of CD34+ HPC, while it has no proliferative effect per se. Within 8 days, the number of viable cells obtained in TNF alpha-supplemented cultures is threefold higher than in cultures carried out with IL-3 or GM-CSF alone. Secondary liquid cultures showed that the potentiating effect of TNF alpha on IL-3-induced proliferation of CD34+ HPC does not result from an IL-3-dependent generation of TNF alpha responsive cells. Limiting dilution analysis indicates that TNF alpha increases both the frequency of IL-3 responding cells and the average size of the IL-3-dependent clones. The potentiating effect of TNF alpha on IL-3- and GM-CSF- dependent growth of CD34+ HPC is also observed in day 7 colony assays. Under these short-term culture conditions, TNF alpha does not appear to accelerate cell maturation as a precursor morphology is retained. Finally, TNF alpha inhibits the relatively weak growth-promoting effect of granulocyte-CSF (G-CSF), which acts on a more committed subpopulation of CD34+ HPC different from that recruited by IL-3 and GM- CSF. TNF beta displays the same modulatory effects as TNF alpha. Thus, TNFs appear to enhance the early stages of myelopoiesis.

Induction of proliferation and differentiation in response to recombinant human interleukin-3 (hIL-3) was studied in liquid and semisolid cultures of umbilical cord blood and bone marrow cells that were fractionated by “panning” with anti-My10 antibody according to expression of CD34 antigen. Cells from enriched fractions (70% to 90% CD34+) were found to proliferate strongly in response to hIL-3. Phenotypic analysis and morphologic characterization of the proliferating cells demonstrated a rapid decrease in CD34+ cells and an exponential increase in the number of cells belonging to the neutrophilic, eosinophilic, monocyte/macrophage, and thrombocytic lineages. When combined with recombinant human erythropoietin, burst colonies and cells expressing glycophorin-A were detected, thereby demonstrating the effects of hIL-3 on erythroid progenitors. Further, the development of mixed-erythroid colonies indicated that multipotential cells within CD34-enriched fractions responded to hIL-3. In addition, we examined the effect of hIL-3 on the proliferation of primary acute myeloblastic leukemia cells in liquid culture. We found that hIL-3 was able to induce cell proliferation in a proportion of the cases tested. Heterogeneity of the responses to hIL-3 was in part related to French-American-British classification but could not be correlated with CD34 antigen expression by the leukemic cells. These results indicate that, although the effects of hIL-3 on proliferation and differentiation of cells obtained from normal hematopoietic specimens were primarily borne by CD34+ cells, expression of the CD34 molecule per se is an insufficient condition to determine a growth response to this lymphokine.