Growth hormone modulation of murine erythroleukemia cell growth in vitro

There are few studies showing a biological effect of growth hormone (somatotropin) on cell proliferation in vitro at physiological concentrations. We report here that Friend virus-infected erythroleukemia cells are responsive to growth hormone in vitro. Using a serum-free clonogenic assay we found as little as 0.1 ng of human growth hormone per ml caused a prominent stimulation of cell proliferation. Peak activity of human growth hormone occurred at 200 ng/ml, resulting in a 2-fold increase in cloning. Human chorionic somatomammotropin and the Cys(Cam)53-hGH(1-134) fragment of human growth hormone were also active, but a biologically inert oxidized human growth hormone had no growth-promoting effect in vitro. Cell proliferation was stimulated by insulin with peak potentiation occurring at 1 ng/ml, and prolactin had a demonstrable stimulatory effect between 50 and 100 ng/ml. These observations indicate that growth hormone and related polypeptides have a direct effect on the in vitro proliferation of erythroleukemia cells in the absence of serum. The results confirm a direct action of growth hormone on mammalian cells and suggest that pituitary hormones may affect leukemic cell growth.