title: Two distinct types of murine blast colony-forming cells are multipotential hematopoietic precursors.
abstract: Two types of blast colonies can be stimulated to develop in semisolid agar cultures of murine bone marrow cells. Typically, these are either multicentric colonies stimulated by stem cell factor (SCF) plus interleukin-6 (IL-6) or dispersed colonies stimulated by Flt3 ligand (FL) plus IL-6. Both types of blast colony-forming cells (BL-CFCs) can generate large numbers of lineage-committed granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells and exhibit some capacity for self-generation and the formation of eosinophil and megakaryocyte progenitor cells. However, the two populations of BL-CFCs are largely distinct and partially separable by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and are distinguished by differing capacity to form granulocyte-committed progeny. Both types of BL-CFCs can generate dendritic cells and small numbers of lymphocytes but the FL-responsive BL-CFCs have a greater capacity to form both B and T lymphocytes. Both types of blast colonies offer remarkable opportunities to analyze multilineage commitment at a clonal level in vitro.
authors.affiliation: The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Metcalf
authors.forename: K T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Greig
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: de Graaf
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Loughran
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kauppi
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Hyland
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Rago
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mifsud
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000502:physiology; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D019089:Stem Cell Factor / Q000502:physiology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D019089:Stem Cell Factor; C084881:flt3 ligand protein