Production by mouse spleen cells of factors stimulating differentiation of mouse myeloid leukemic cells that differ from the colony-stimulating factor.

Mouse myeloid leukemic M1 cells can be induced to differentiate into macrophages and granulocytes in vitro by a protein inducer, differentiation-stimulating factor (D-factor), and by various other compounds. Mouse spleen cells produced D-factors when treated with various mitogens, such as concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen, lipopolysaccharide, and synthetic double-stranded polyribonucleotide copolymer of polyinosinic and polycytidylic acids. Concanavalin A, phytohemagglutinin, and pokeweed mitogen stimulated spleen lymphocytes, but not spleen macrophages, to produce a D-factor with an apparent molecular weight of 40,000 to 50,000. On the other hand, lipopolysaccharide and copolymer of polyinosinic and polycytidylic acids stimulated both spleen lymphocytes and spleen macrophages to produce D-factors. Spleen macrophages produced D-factors with molecular weights of 40,000 to 50,000 and 20,000 to 25,000, whereas spleen lymphocytes produced only the larger molecules. In addition to D-factor, colony-stimulating factor (CSF), which stimulates growth and differentiation of normal bone marrow cells, and interferon, were detected in conditioned medium of spleen cells treated with concanavalin A or lipopolysaccharide. On gel filtration of the conditioned medium with Sephadex G-100, CSF was eluted between the larger D-factor and the smaller one. The fraction with interferon activity overlapped that of the larger D-factor. Incubation of the conditioned medium at pH 2 abolished the activity of interferon but did not affect the activity of either D-factor or CSF. The addition of cytochalasin B suppressed the production of interferon but not of D-factor or CSF by the spleen cells. These results indicate that the D-factor is a different substance from CSF or type II interferon.