Increase in erythroid colony formation in rabbits following the administration of testosterone

Changes in the numbers of erythroid colonies formed in cultures from rabbits pretreated with either testosterone or busulfan plus testosterone were studied using a methyl cellulose gel system. The mean number of erythroid colonies in bone marrows from rabbits treated with testosterone in vivo was significantly higher than that of controls. However, this increase in erythroid colonies in cultures seen following testosterone treatment was completely blocked by the concurrent administration of busulfan as seen in the rabbits treated with busulfan orally and followed by testosterone injections. Busulfan has been postulated block the formation of new erythropoietin responsive cells (ERC) from hematopoietic stem cells (CFU). Thus, these findings suggest that testosterone may act directly on CFU to enhance their differentiation into the ERC compartment causing an increase in nucleated erythroid cells.