Differential binding of erythroid and myeloid progenitors to fibroblasts and fibronectin

Using a novel coverslip-transfer culture technique, we recently demonstrated that primitive erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-E) can migrate, proliferate, and differentiate in intimate association with stromal fibroblastoid cells in the presence of serum proteins and erythropoietin. No other exogenous hemopoietic growth factors are required. Most of the colonies that develop in this system are very large erythroid bursts, and very few granulocyte-macrophage (GM) colonies are observed. In this report, we present data indicating that the predominance of erythroid burst colonies in this culture system is due to preferential binding of primitive erythroid progenitors to the stromal fibroblastoid cells and not to differential stimulation of these erythroid progenitors by these cells. We next show that the binding of BFU-E to stromal cells is blocked by anti-fibronectin antibodies. Finally, we demonstrate the preferential binding of BFU-E to fibronectin by using glass coverslips or Petri dishes coated with purified human plasma fibronectin. The binding is blocked by a monoclonal antibody specific for the cell-binding domain of fibronectin. We conclude that: primitive erythroid progenitors bind strongly whereas G and/or M progenitors (CFU-G/M) bind only weakly to fibronectin; primitive erythroid progenitors bind to the cell-binding domain on the fibronectin molecule; and erythroid progenitors and precursors remain bound to fibronectin throughout differentiation.