Because polycythemia vera (PV) is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell disease with a trilineage hyperplasia, and interleukin-3 (IL-3) stimulates trilineage hematopoiesis, we have studied the response of highly purified PV blood burst-forming units-erythroid (BFU-E) to recombinant human IL-3 (rIL-3). Whereas the growth of normal blood BFU-E in vitro rapidly declined by 40 and 60% after 24 and 48 h of incubation without 50 U/ml of rIL-3, the growth of PV BFU-E declined by only 10 and 30% under the same conditions, demonstrating a reduced dependence on rIL-3. A reduced dependence of PV BFU-E on recombinant human erythropoietin (rEP) was also present. Dose-response experiments showed a 117-fold increase in PV BFU-E sensitivity to rIL-3, and a 6.5-fold increase in sensitivity to rEP, compared to normal BFU-E, whereas blood BFU-E from patients with secondary polycythemia responded like normal BFU-E. Endogenous erythroid colony (EEC) formation, which is independent of the addition of rEP, was reduced by 50% after erythroid colony-forming cells were generated from PV BFU-E in vitro without rIL-3 for 3 d, whereas rEP-stimulated erythroid colonies were unaffected. These studies demonstrate a striking hypersensitivity of PV blood BFU-E to rIL-3, which may be the major factor in the pathogenesis of increased erythropoiesis without increased EP concentrations.