Serum Replacement in Culture of Human Erythroid and Megakaryocytic Precursors

Abstract

Iscove et al. (1) have recently, succeeded in the complete replacement of serum for cloning of murine CFU-E. In the cultures, serum was replaced by albumin, iron saturated transferrin and lipids prepared as liposomes. Aye et al. (2) could also replace the serum in human cultures. The source of lipids was low density lipoproteins (LDL). In this work, first we have used the method described by Aye et al. (2) to compare the erythropoietin (Epo) sensitivity of normal and polycythemia vera (PV) erythroid progenitors. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that in serum cultures, a part of the PV erythroid progenitors differentiates without Epo addition while their normal counterparts have an absolute Epo requirement (3,4,5). These PV spontaneous colonies can be either Epo independent or exquisitely sensitive to the hormone present in the serum (6). Results of this study have been already published (7). Second, we have preliminary tried to replace the serum in the human megakaryocyte (MK) colony assay. However, this technique was not serum free since the semi solid medium consisted of bovine plasma clot. A part of the results has been published elsewhere (8).