Murine serum obtained from bone marrow-transplanted mice promotes the proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells by co-culture with MS-5 murine stromal cells.

To examine whether serum obtained from bone marrow-transplanted mice can selectively expand hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) among whole bone marrow cells in vitro, whole bone marrow cells were cultured with or without MS-5 murine stromal cells in the presence of serum obtained from transplanted mice on day 3 (day 3 serum) or serum from normal mice for 7 days. When whole bone marrow cells and MS-5 cells were co-cultured in day 3 serum for 7 days, the c-kit-positive, Sca-1-positive, lineage marker-negative cells (KSL cells) expanded approximately 25 times; however, when they were co-cultured in normal serum for 7 days, the KSL cells expanded approximately 1.3 times. Direct contact between the whole bone marrow cells and MS-5 cells was essential for expansion of KSL cells in the co-culture, and it upregulated the expression of some cytokines in MS-5. Above all, the day 3 serum specifically upregulated the expression of SCF, SDF-1 alpha, G-CSF, IL-11 and IL-6 in MS-5. The level of testosterone in the day 3 serum was higher than normal serum and the addition of the testosterone in the culture expanded the KSL cells among whole bone marrow cells on MS-5 cells and also upregulated the expression of SDF-1 alpha, IL-11 and IL-6 in MS-5. These data indicates that the serum of bone marrow-transplanted mice contains a factor(s) that induced changes in the expression levels of various cytokines in MS-5 stromal cells and enabled the MS-5 cells to expand the KSL cells among whole bone marrow cells.