Co-administration of IL3 with G-CSF increases the CFU-S mobilization into peripheral blood

In an attempt to establish an efficient method of collecting peripheral blood stem cells and to utilize them for allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, the effect of a combined administration of recombinant murine interleukin-3 (IL3) and recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to mobilize bone marrow stem cells into the circulation was examined in C57BL/6 mice. Some appreciable numbers (796 +/- 112/ml) of CFU-GM were recovered 6 days after G-CSF administration (500 micrograms/kg per day), while by IL3 administration (100,000 units/kg per day), the CFU-GM count was much lower (61 +/- 9/ml) with a small peak at day 4. By a combined administration of IL3 (100,000 units/kg per day) and G-CSF (500 micrograms/kg per day), the CFU-GM count at the peak of day 5 was significantly augmented (1178 +/- 277/ml) as compared to that of G-CSF or IL3 alone (P < 0.05). The CFU-S counts at day 5 (168 +/- 12/ml) and at day 6 (172 +/- 27) were also significantly higher than those of IL3 alone (day 5, 30 +/- 15/ml; day 6, 20 +/- 10/ml) or G-CSF alone (day 5, 114 +/- 14/ml; day 6, 112 +/- 19/ml). Thus the combined administration of IL3 and G-CSF appears to be promising for high yield collection of peripheral blood stem cells.