Serum-free conditions for the growth of avian granulocyte and monocyte clones and primary leukemic cells induced by AMV, and the apparent conversion of granulocytic progenitors into monocytic cells by a factor in chicken serum.

ABSTRACT

The supportive activity of chicken serum for the soft-agar growth of chicken granulocyte and monocyte clones could be replaced with defined ingredients [bovine serum albumin (BSA), conalbumin, selenium, linoleic acid and for routine work, a liquid soy lecithin preparation (59% phospholipids, 39% linoleic acid, and less than 2% of inositol and choline)]. The lecithin preparation could be replaced with L-alpha-phosphatidylcholine. The source of colony-stimulating factor was medium conditioned by fibroblasts cultured under protein-free conditions. AMV-induced leukemic cells could be cloned under identical conditions. In the presence of both chicken serum (10%) and the replacement ingredients, most of the proliferative clones produced were monocytic (84%). In the presence of serum alone, all of them were monocytic. Under serum-free conditions, all the clones produced were granulocytic when a day-3 conditioned medium (CM) was used; monocytic ones were also present when a day-6 CM was used. When the serum was serially diluted in the presence of the replacement ingredients, the number of proliferative monocytic clones progressively decreased while the number of proliferative granulocytic clones progressively increased and the kinetics of each were essentially the same, only opposite in direction. Moreover, the total number of proliferative clones did not change more than 33% at any dilution (or in the absence of serum). We postulate the existence in the chick system of a serum macrophage differentiation factor (M-DF) which converts early granulocytic progenitors (or exclusively diverts a common progenitor) into monocytic cells.