Hemopoietic growth factors: a review

Several hemopoietic growth factors have now been purified, cloned, and produced in bacteria. Granulocyte colony stimulating factor and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor are already being used in clinical trials. Within 12 months two more hemopoietic growth factors, macrophage colony stimulating factor (also called colony stimulating factor 1) and interleukin 3 (also called multi-colony stimulating factor) will be used for patient treatment. This review discusses the recent advances in our knowledge of the molecular properties and biological specificities of these factors. It is now clear that these molecules are able to modulate selectively the activity of mature blood cells as well as stimulating the production of specific lineages of blood cells. The availability of recombinant hemopoietic growth factors purified from animal or yeast cell conditioned medium or bacteria has facilitated in vivo experiments, as well as the clinical trials. Each of the growth factors has a unique spectrum of biological activities and it appears that the growth factors will enhance the recovery and function of circulating white blood cells after cancer therapy or bone marrow transplantation.