Stimulation of fetal hemoglobin synthesis in bone marrow cultures from adult individuals.

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Abstract
The regulation of fetal Hb in adult erythroid cells [human] was investigated with bone marrow cultures. Fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) was identified in individual erythroid colonies with fluorescent antibodies against Hb F and synthesis of .gamma. chains was determined with analyses of radioactive globins. The appearance of HbF in erythroid colonies was clonal. All the cells of the Hb F synthesizing colonies contained HbF. the frequency of erythroid colonies showing Hb F was higher than expected compared to the frequency of Hb F containing cells in the blood. Production of Hb F in culture, as shown by analysis of the radioactive globins, was 5 to 14 times higher than baseline Hb F synthesis. The ability for .gamma. chain synthesis in erythroid cells is apparently determined at or above the level of the precursor cell from which the erythroid colonies, in vitro, derive (probably an erythropoietin responsive stem cell), and that stimulation of HbF synthesis in adult erythroid cells is possible.