Effect of hydrocortisone and BCNU on long-term murine bone marrow cultures

Hydrocortisone (HC) has been observed to influence an in vitro Dexter culture system with maintenance of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells (CFU-s) and progenitor cells (CFU-gm, BFU-e). In the present study, a two-phase murine Dexter culture system was established to study the mechanism of HC-mediated suppression of stem cells or progenitor cells. Furthermore, the effect of exposing 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) to an adherent cell layer for 1 h was investigated for maintenance of progenitor cells. Cultures supplemented with selenium and transferrin showed relatively good growth. The BFU-e number was significantly enhanced at 2 and 3 weeks of culture in the BCNU-treated group. This system is a good model for monitoring the influence of agents to a hematopoietic-inductive microenvironment.