Effects of high-dose estrogen on murine hematopoietic bone marrow precede those on osteogenesis

High-dose estrogen both stimulates new medullary bone formation and suppresses hematopoiesis in mouse long bones. To determine whether the latter response is a direct consequence of the former, we compared the time course of estrogen's effects on osteogenesis and hematopoietic bone marrow. Flow cytometry was employed to measure hematopoietic subpopulations in bone marrow from femurs of female mice killed at different times after commencing 0.5 mg estradiol/wk to each animal. Estrogen markedly reduced the number of leucocytes (CD11a positive), which had already diminished by 75% after 4 days and had virtually disappeared by 18 days. Specific populations showed a similar pattern of decline after estrogen, including B lymphocytes, monocytes, and endothelial cells. In contrast, the osteogenic precursor population showed a marked increase after estrogen treatment, as assessed by assaying alkaline phosphatase-positive colony-forming units (fibroblastic) ex vivo. However, this rise did not reach significance until 8 days after estrogen administration, suggesting that it follows rather than precedes estrogen's effects on hematopoiesis. We conclude that estrogen does not suppress hematopoiesis in mouse long bones as a direct consequence of its effects on osteogenesis.