Spleen colony-forming cell as common precursor for tissue mast cells and granulocytes

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Abstract
The haematopoietic stem cells which produce colonies in the spleen of irradiated mice (CFU-S)1 can differentiate into erythrocytes, granulocytes, megakaryocytes and B lymphocytes2–4. Although mast cell precursors are known to be present in the bone marrow5, spleen6, fetal liver7 and peripheral blood8 of mice, the relationship between the mast cell precursor and CFU-S has remained unclear. We have now made use of mice of two mutant genotypes to determine whether or not the tissue mast cell is a progeny of CFU-S. Giant granules of beige (C57BL/6-bgJ/bgJ, Chediak-Higashi syndrome) mice can be used for identification of the origin of both tissue mast cells5 and granulocytes9, and WBB6F1-W/Wν mice are useful recipients because they lack tissue mast cells owing to a defect in mast cell precursors10. We injected the cells from a single spleen colony into each WBB6F1-W/Wν mouse and demonstrated directly that the tissue mast cell is a progeny of CFU-S.