Modest stimulatory effect of recombinant human GM-CSF on colony growth from peripheral blood human megakaryocyte progenitor cells

Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rGM-CSF) has been previously demonstrated to stimulate colony formation from human myeloid, erythroid, and multipotential stem cells. In this investigation, we evaluated the effects of rGM-CSF on colony growth by human megakaryocyte progenitors (CFU-Meg). rGM-CSF was tested at concentrations of 0.1-100 U/ml in plasma clot cultures of adherent-depleted normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Control cultures were concurrently prepared containing either no stimulator or megakaryocyte colony-stimulating factor (Meg-CSF) partially purified from aplastic canine serum. rGM-CSF increased megakaryocyte colony numbers from a baseline of 4.3 +/- 1.4 (+/- SEM) in the unstimulated cultures to a maximum of 21.0 +/- 5.3 colonies at an rGM-CSF concentration of 1.0 U/ml. Corresponding megakaryocytic colony size increased from 4.4 to 8.3 cells/colony. Further increasing the rGM-CSF concentration resulted in decreasing megakaryocyte colony growth, reaching 6.8 +/- 2.9 colonies at 100 U/ml. The maximum number of megakaryocyte colonies stimulated by rGM-CSF was only 23.3% of that achieved in the control cultures containing optimal concentrations of serum-derived Meg-CSF protein (2.0 mg/ml). Megakaryocyte colonies stimulated by rGM-CSF consisted of predominantly low ploidy cells approximately equally distributed in 2N, 4N, and 8N ploidy classes. There was no increase in ploidy with any rGM-CSF concentration. These data indicate that rGM-CSF has modest activity in stimulating human megakaryocyte colony growth that is substantially less than that present in serum-derived Meg-CSF. rGM-CSF appears to primarily affect the early mitotic phase of megakaryocyte colony development with little influence on megakaryocyte endoreduplication.