In vitro expansion of CD34+/CD41+ cells from human peripheral blood CD34+/CD41- cells: role of cytokines for in vitro proliferation and differentiation of megakaryocytic progenitors

The aim of this study is to clarify the transitional change of the proliferation and differentiation of human peripheral blood CD34+ cells to megakaryocytic lineage, focusing on its clinical application. We developed a rapid system to purify human peripheral blood CD34+ cells from healthy volunteers, which produced CD34+ cells with a 90% purity. The purified CD34+ cells predominantly consisted of CD41- cells, and the rate of coexpression of CD41 was 0.6% +/- 0.5%. When the purified cells were cultured in liquid phase for 10 days in the presence of recombinant human stem cell factor (rSCF: a ligand for c-kit), interleukin-3 (rIL-3), and thrombopoietin (rTPO: a ligand for Mpl), the number of CD34+/CD41+ cells increased to 19% +/- 7% of total expanded cells on day 4 (4 days of liquid culture) and then gradually decreased to 2.2% +/- 0.6% on day 10. The absolute number of CD34+/CD41+ cells increased and reached a plateau on day 6, and 1.7 +/- 0.6 x 10(5) CD34+/CD41+ cells were produced by 1 x 10(5) CD34+/CD41- day 0 cells. The CD34-/CD41+ cells appeared on day 6, continuously increased in number until day 10, and constituted the main population of expanded cells on day 10, with a value of 38% +/- 18%. On day 10, 19.5 +/- 10.6 x 10(5) of CD34-/CD41+ cells were produced by 1 x 10(5) CD34+/CD41- day 0 cells. The deletion of rTPO from this cytokine combination decreased the number of CD34+/CD41+ and CD34-/CD41+ cells, after days 6 and 8, respectively. Day 0 cells required rIL-3 for promoting colonies containing megakaryocytes, whereas rTPO alone promoted almost no megakaryocytic colonies from day 0 cells. Thus, a combination of IL-3 and SCF expands CD34+/CD41+ cells from CD34+/CD41- cells, and TPO mainly acts to increase CD34-/CD41+ cells. This study suggests that if the expansion of CD34+/CD41+ is performed in vitro, the 6 days' culture of peripheral blood CD34+/CD41- cells with a combination of IL-3 and SCF with TPO provides the most rapid and stable products of CD34+/CD41+ cells for the rapid recovery of platelets in patients with peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.