Changes in the growth properties of CD34+, CD38- bone marrow progenitors during human fetal development

We have previously described the isolation of separate populations of CD34+, CD38- stromal and hematopoietic progenitors cells within fetal bone marrow. The CD34+, CD38-, CD50+, HLA-DR+ population contained the majority of primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells, whereas stromal progenitors were contained within the CD34+, CD38-, CD50-, HLA-DR- population. In this study, we compared the frequencies and total numbers of clonogenic CD34+, CD38- stromal and hematopoietic cells as a function of fetal gestational age using single-cell fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS). At 14 weeks of gestation, 1/500 fetal bone marrow mononuclear cells were primitive hematopoietic CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR+ progenitor cells, whereas 1/1,000 were stromal progenitors with the CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR- phenotype. During fetal ontogeny there was a continuous, age-dependent decrease in the frequency of stromal progenitors, such that, at 24 weeks of gestation, only 1/100,000 of bone marrow cells had the CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR- phenotype and were clonogenic stromal cells when isolated by FACS. In contrast, 1/250 bone marrow cells in a 24-week fetus had the CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR+ phenotype and were clonogenic hematopoietic progenitors. The decrease in the frequency of stromal progenitors was a function of both a decreased frequency of cells with the CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR- phenotype and a decrease in the growth potential of individual with this phenotype. The total numbers of mononuclear cells and the total numbers of hematopoietic progenitors in two fetal femurs increased in parallel, 100-fold, between 14 and 24 weeks of gestation. In contrast, the total numbers of clonogenic CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR- stromal progenitor cells remained constant during this period. Although adult bone marrow samples contained stromal progenitor cells at a frequency of approximately 1/7,000 mononuclear cells, clonogenic stromal cells with the CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR- phenotype could not be isolated by single-cell FACS from these samples. Thus, there are significant differences between the frequencies and biologic characteristics of stromal and hematopoietic stem cells during fetal and postnatal ontogeny.