Growth and differentiation of eosinophils from human peripheral blood CD 34+ cells

Small numbers of CD34+ primitive hematopoietic progenitors are found in normal human peripheral blood. These cells differentiate to myeloid or lymphoid lineage under the influence of growth factors. We investigated the effects of IL5 and other growth factors on the production of eosinophils from peripheral blood CD34+ cells. CD34+ cells were plated in agarose with different combinations of cytokines. At 14 days of growth a triple stain technique was used to identify eosinophil, monocyte and neutrophil colonies. IL5 alone did not support colony growth. In contrast GM-CSF and IL3 alone or together supported the generation of more than 50% eosinophil colonies. Addition of IL5 increased the fraction of eosinophil colonies to over 70%. Under the best conditions (IL3 + GM-CSF + IL5), the addition of interferon-a or LPS inhibited colony growth by 51% and 58%, respectively. Since IL5 alone did not support colony growth from CD34+ cells, we determined when IL5 responsive cells appeared in culture. Cells were grown initially with IL3 + GM-CSF, washed, and plated with IL5 alone. Only when progenitors were grown at least 3 days, could IL5 serve as the single growth factor supporting pure eosinophil colony growth (47 colonies/104 cells plated at day 3 and 134 colonies/104 cells at day 7). Growth of CD34+ in liquid culture for 28 days in the presence of IL3, GM-CSF and IL5 resulted in almost 250 fold increase in cell number, yielding a population of 83% maturing eosinophils. We used our culture system and the sensitive technique of RT-PCR to analyze the kinetics of production of mRNA transcripts encoding several eosinophil proteins. Freshly isolated CD34+ cells contained no eosinophil granule protein transcripts and barely detectable amounts of some oxidase protein transcripts. At day 3 of culture no cells recognizable by histochemical staining as eosinophils could be detected, but transcripts for all five eosinophil granule proteins were present. These transcripts increased several fold during the entire culture period. Similar kinetics were seen for the NADPH oxidase protein transcripts. These studies demonstrate that within 3 days of culture, peripheral blood CD34+ cells can become committed to the eosinophil lineage as demonstrated by responsiveness to IL5 and production of specific protein transcripts.