Selectively increased growth of fetal hemoglobin-expressing adult erythroid progenitors after brief treatment of early progenitors with transforming growth factor beta

We have studied the effect of transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) on erythropoiesis in cultures from adult peripheral blood, using flow cytometric enumeration of fetal hemoglobin (HbF)-containing cells. TGFbeta caused a dramatic increase in the proportions of cells that accumulated HbF together with adult hemoglobin (HbA) (F+A+ cells). This highly significant (P