Steroids and hematopoiesis I. The effect of steroids on in vitro erythroid colony growth: Structure/activity relationships

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Abstract
When substituted steroids of several classes are added to cultures of rat bone marrow cells in the presence of erythropoietin a consistent enhancement of the number of colonies of hemoglobin synthesizing cells is obtained. Maximum steroid effectiveness was found to be between 10−6 and 10−7 M. Representative compounds of several classes of steroids were examined for their ability to enhance colony growth, including δ 4‐estrenes, δ 4‐androstenes, 5α‐H androstanes and estranes, 5β‐H estranes, pregnanes and androstanes. While testosterone and its 5α‐H derivatives had little or no activity, many synthetic derivatives of testosterone were highly active in increasing erythroid colony growth. All 5β‐H androstanes, estranes, and all but one 5β‐H pregnane were active. Cortisol consistently inhibited colony growth and estradiol and progesterone had no significant effect.