Specificity of action of colony-stimulating factors in the differentiation of granulocytes and macrophages.

Abstract

Four colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) (M-CSF, GM-CSF, Multi-CSF and G-CSF) can each stimulate the production of macrophages from progenitor cells in murine bone marrow or fetal liver. However, they differ in their relative selectivity for macrophage progenitor cells and in their dose-response characteristics for stimulating macrophage progenitors relative to other progenitors. It is unresolved whether distinct subsets of progenitor cells exist with a unique responsiveness to one or other CSF or whether the macrophages produced by different CSFs are all functionally equivalent. However, it is shown here that various CSFs can generate from blast progenitor cells an intermediate macrophage pro..