The effects of interleukin 7 (IL-7) on human bone marrow in vitro

Interleukin 7 (IL-7) stimulates the proliferation of pre-B cells from long-term murine lymphoid cultures and normal bone marrow. In addition, IL-7 stimulates the proliferation of murine T cells, including fetal and adult thymocytes as well as peripheral T cells. Flow cytometry and cell enumeration analyses were carried out on light-density human bone marrow cells incubated in the presence or absence of IL-7. The data showed no evidence for a proliferative effect of IL-7 on B-lineage cells expressing CD24 or on myeloid cells expressing CD15; however, IL-7 did stimulate the growth of T cells expressing CD3. After 16 days of stimulation the number of CD3+ cells in marrow cultures increased 350% in the presence of IL-7. In contrast, cultures incubated in the absence of IL-7 showed a 50% decrease in the number of T cells, with a preponderance of myeloid lineage cells. Flow cytometry indicated that cells from IL-7-stimulated cultures were mature T cells because they also expressed cell surface antigens for either CD4 or CD8. These studies show that in contrast to the murine system, IL-7 does not appear to stimulate the growth of human pre-B cells from adult human bone marrow. This is consistent with other experiments that suggest that human pro-B cells and not human pre-B cells respond to IL-7. It appears that IL-7 preferentially promotes the growth of T cells from human marrow.