Preferential differentiation of murine CFU-S toward granulopoiesis and megakaryocytopoiesis after in vitro incubation of bone marrow with ASTA-Z 7557.

We investigated the in vitro effect of ASTA-Z 7557 on the qualitative aspects of murine CFU-S differentiation, as assessed by the histological nature of day-9 colonies generated in the spleen of irradiated mice by bone marrow exposed to the drug at concentrations ranging from 0 to 150 micrograms/ml. The proportion of erythrocytic colonies declined linearly with the logarithm of the dose (a 22% decrease per log), whereas the granulocytic and megakaryocytic colony proportions increased linearly (a 10% increase per log for both cell lineages). This suggests a preferential channeling of CFU-S differentiation toward granulopoietic and megakaryocytic cell lineages as a consequence of the in vitro chemotherapy, and supports the hypothesis that some alteration of the qualitative potential of CFU-S to differentiate after in vitro purging of bone marrow with ASTA-Z 7557 takes place prior to autologous bone marrow transplantation.