The effect of vitamin D3 metabolites on normal and leukemic bone marrow cells in vitro

We studied the effects of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and other metabolites of vitamin D3 on the maturation in liquid culture and on colony formation in semisolid media of marrow and buffy coat cells from patients with myeloid leukemias and from normal individuals. After incubation with 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3, a proportion of both normal and leukemic myeloid cells resembled cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage; these cells expressed alpha-naphthylacetate esterase and were able to phagocytize and kill candida organisms. When granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells (CFU-GM) were incubated with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, the number of monocyte-macrophage colonies was increased and the number of granulocyte colonies was reduced; megakaryocyte colony formation (CFU-Mk) was inhibited substantially; and there was no effect on erythroid (BFU-E) or multilineage (CFU-GEMM) progenitor cell colony formation. We propose that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 may induce cells that are normally committed to differentiate along the granulocytic pathways to differentiate instead along the monocyte-macrophage pathway. If these in vitro observations reflect the in vivo activity of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, it may be involved in the modulation of collagen deposits in the bone marrow.