Basophil Production

Judah A. Denburg; Maureen Davison; John Bienenstock

doi:10.1172/JCI109682

Basophil Production

Judah A. Denburg, Maureen Davison, and John Bienenstock

Published February 1, 1980 - More info

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Abstract

Factors influencing basophil production from the bone marrow of ovalbumin (OA)-sensitized guinea pigs have been examined in vitro. Autologous co-cultures of marrow and spleen cells from OA-immune animals contained significantly higher numbers of basophils after 7 d of liquid culture in the presence of OA, compared with control co-cultures or with marrow cultures alone (P < 0.005).

Basophils increased in co-culture as the number of spleen cells added to a fixed number of marrow cells was increased from 0.10 to 2.5 × 10⁶/ml; at each spleen cell concentration, the presence of OA significantly enhanced basophil production in vitro when compared with unstimulated co-cultures. There was no basophil production from spleen cell suspensions cultured in the absence of autologous marrow cells. Conditioned media (CM) prepared from OA-stimulated spleen cells of OA-treated animals (CM-OA) caused a specific stimulation of basophil production from normal guinea pig bone marrow cells in liquid cultures (P < 0.01). Phytohemagglutinin (PHA)- and pokeweed mitogen-stimulated CM (CM-PHA, CM-pokeweed mitogen) nonspecifically enhanced normal basophilopoiesis, causing dose-dependent increases in basophils and histamine in vitro. CM-OA and CM-PHA also preferentially stimulated formation of neutrophil-macrophage colony-forming units in semisolid methylcellulose cultures.

CM-PHA prepared from T cell-enriched splenic cell suspensions contained basophil-stimulating activity, whereas T cell-depleted CM-PHA activity did not exceed control values (P < 0.01). Preliminary characterization of CM-PHA revealed that basophil-stimulating activity was predominantly heat stable and nondialyzable.

These results demonstrate OA-specific, as well as mitogen-dependent T-cell regulation of guinea pig basophilopoiesis in vitro. The data are compatible with the existence of a specific “basophilopoietin” in CM derived from guinea pig splenic T cells.