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Monocytes and macrophages show marked phenotypic variation dependent on their tissue of origin. Peripheral blood monocytes have been found to be sources of a variety of cytokines, but isolated marrow macrophages have not been characterized in this regard. Marrow macrophages form a predominant component of murine adherent Dexter stromal cells and can be isolated by sequential explant culture in colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1). We have studied murine (Balb/c) bone marrow macrophage (BMM) cytokine production in the presence or absence of CSF-1, the lectin pokeweed mitogen (PWM) or interleukin-3 (IL-3). Biologic activity in conditioned media (cm) from control and induced BMM was assessed using the factor-dependent cell lines 32D, NFS-60, T1165, MC-6 and FDC-P1. Cell line stimulation and antibody blocking indicated the presence of c-kit ligand, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). This stimulatory activity was increased by exposure to PWM or the combination of CSF-1 and PWM or CSF-1 and IL-3. CSF-1, as determined by radioimmunoassay (RIA), was essentially undetectable in baseline cm and induction was not seen with PWM or CSF-1. Baseline or "constitutive" expression of BMM and mRNA for CSF-1 and c-kit ligand was seen. Uninduced BMM did not express mRNA for G-CSF, granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), IL-6 or IL-3. CSF-1 induced increased expression of IL-6 mRNA, PWM induced increased expression of G-CSF and IL-6 mRNA and the combination of PWM and CSF-1 induced expression of CSF-1, G-CSF and IL-6 mRNA. Varying levels of CSF-1 had differential effects on cytokine production. Increasing levels of CSF-1 increased IL-6 mRNA and downmodulated CSF-1 mRNA expression. There was a biphasic response of c-kit ligand mRNA expression to CSF-1 exposure; low levels of CSF-1 (50 U/mL) induced, while higher levels (2000 U/mL) inhibited, expression. These data indicate that BMM (and by analogy the macrophage component of Dexter culture stroma), are important sources of CSF-1 and c-kit ligand but not GM-CSF or IL-3. BMM can also be induced to express IL-6 and/or G-CSF. Lastly, CSF-1, by differentially modulating BMM cytokine production in a holocrine or autocrine manner, may function as a central regulator of stromal based hematopoiesis.

The intramedullary control of marrow cell production has been a difficult area to approach experimentally. The introduction by Dr. Dexter and colleagues of long-term stromal dependent culture systems for murine marrow and the adaptation of these systems to human marrow growth have allowed for in-vitro studies of stromal dependent hemopoiesis. Despite some controversy in this area, most studies appear to show that adherent murine or human stromal cells are capable of producing a relatively large number of hemopoietic growth factors including G-CSF, GM-CSF, CSF-1, IL-6 and, at least by PCR analysis, IL-3. Other work indicates that the most primitive hemopoietic cells which appear to be multifactor responsive adhere directly to these stromal cells presumably through mediation of various adherence proteins. An early acting, multilineage factor termed hemolymphopoietic growth factor-1 (HLGF-1) has been isolated from a murine stromal cell line and may be identical to the recently described ligand for the c-kit receptor. This may represent an important early survival/maintenance factor for stem cells in this system. Studies on primitive stem cells, especially the high proliferative potential colony forming cell (HPP-CFC), indicate that they are responsive to varying combinations of growth factors and that with increasing numbers of growth factors, as studied in serum-free systems, decreasing concentrations of the factors may be biologically active. These observations altogether suggest that intramedullary hemopoiesis may be regulated by the positioning of early multifactor responsive stem cells via adherent proteins in juxtaposition to synergistically acting combinations of growth factors attached to stromal cell surfaces or the extracellular matrix.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adherent murine stromal cells support long-term in vitro lymphopoiesis or myelopoiesis dependent on the culture conditions used. A cell line, TC-1, isolated from long-term liquid murine marrow cultures under conditions approaching those permissive for lymphoid growth, has been found to produce an activity that acts synergistically with interleukin-3 (IL-3) or colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) to stimulate in vitro myeloid colonies, but which has no intrinsic colony-stimulating activity. We report here the presence of multiple growth factors in conditioned medium (CM) from the TC-1 line, including granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (bioassay with antibody blocking and messenger RNA [mRNA] analysis), granulocyte CSF (G-CSF) and IL-4 (factor-dependent cell line bioassay), and CSF-1 (radioimmunoassay, mRNA) along with a pre-B cell inducing activity, which appears separate from these CSFs and segregates with the myeloid synergizing activity through anion exchange, sizing, and Conconavalin A chromatography. Because these activities are not yet purified to homogeneity, their identity or lack of identity remains an open question. Assays of TC-1 CM or cellular mRNA analysis have given negative results for IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-6, and IL-7, and IL-6 does not stimulate pre-B cells in this assay. However, IL-4 and G-CSF do stimulate in vitro induction of pre-B cells from pre-B and B-cell-depleted Balb/C marrow and are present in CM by selective cell line assay. A monoclonal antibody to IL-4 that inhibited its pre-B inducing activity did not inhibit pre-B inducing activity of TC-1 CM. These data suggest the existence of a unique synergizing and pre-B inducing factor(s) in TC-1 CM. Given the known capacity of subliminal levels of growth factors to act synergistically, an alternate possibility is that these biologic phenomena represent the actions of low concentrations of growth factors acting synergistically and possibly associated with some core protein.