ISOLATION AND INVITRO DIFFERENTIATION OF HUMAN ERYTHROID PRECURSOR CELLS

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 47  (5) , 767-776
Abstract
There is decreased .beta.-globin production in .beta.-thalassemic reticulocytes and nucleated erythroid cells. In order to determine the pattern of globin synthesis in early erythroid cells during erythroid cell maturation, an in vitro culture system using human bone marrow erythroid precursor cells was developed. Early erythroid precursor cells (proerythroblasts and basophilic erythroblasts) were isolated from nonthalassemic and thalassemic human bone marrows by lysing more mature erythroid cells, using complement and a rabbit antiserum prepared against normal human red cells. In the presence of erythropoietin, differentiation and proliferation of erythroid cells was demonstrable in liquid suspension culture for 24-48 h, as determined by morphological criteria and by an increase in globin synthesis. The ratio of .alpha.- to .beta.-globin chain synthesis in nonthalassemic cells was approximately 1 at all stages of erythroid cell differentiation during culture. In cells from 4 patients with homozygous .beta.-thalassemia there was decreased .beta.-globin synthesis compared to .alpha.-globin synthesis, both in early erythroid precursor cells and during their maturation in culture. Unbalanced globin chain synthesis is probably expressed at all stages of red cell maturation in homozygous .beta.-thalassemia.