Thymic inhibition of myelopoietic proliferation.
Homeostasis may be viewed as the dynamic balance reached between cellular production and loss. The effectors of proliferation are thought to be tissue-specific humoral substances. Inhibitory substances appear to negate the proliferate effects of activator substances. We report here that conditioned medium from cultures of murine "nonlymphoid" adherent thymus cells in a source of a potent myelopoietic inhibitor substance(s). Examination of the inhibitor(s) in the soft-agar clonogenic assay show it to abrogate both the 10-day granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cell (GM-CFC) and the 25-day monocyte-macrophage colony-forming cell (M-CFC). The inhibition is most significant when the thymus-conditioned medium (TCM) is present upon culture initiation. TCM added at a time after soft-agar initiation (day 6) also results in significant clonogenic inhibition. We have characterized the inhibitor as potent on the basis that volume ratios of inhibitor to L-cell colony-stimulating factor (CSF) as low as 1 part to 40 parts will give near total inhibition of both GM-CFC and M-CFC clonogenic growth. The inhibitor is dialyzable, has a molecular weight of less than 1000, is not significantly cytotoxic, and its effects are reversible with washing.
D000818:Animals; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000502:physiology; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002999:Clone Cells; D003470:Culture Media; D004848:Epithelium / Q000502:physiology; D006098:Granulocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009000:Monocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000502:physiology*
D003470:Culture Media