Characterization of a CSF-induced proliferating subpopulation of human peripheral blood monocytes by surface marker expression and cytokine production.

The phenotype of a subpopulation(s) of human monocytes which has been shown to proliferate in vitro in response to macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF or CSF-1) and granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) is as yet unknown. To identify this proliferating subpopulation(s) we demonstrated first that DNA synthesis was occurring under culture conditions suitable for flow cytometric evaluation. Flow cytometric analysis of surface antigen expression identified that after 5 days of culture the proliferating subpopulation of monocytes expressed CD14, CD13, CD33, CD11b, CD11c, CD87, HLA-DR, CD45RO, and did not express CD86, CD34, CD80, CD4, CD16, and CD56. In addition, these proliferating monocytes (representing approximately 5% of total monocytes) were shown to produce the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha in response to lipopolysaccharide stimulation. Further characterization and subsequent isolation of this subpopulation of monocytes may provide new and important information necessary to understand inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, where local proliferation at the site of inflammation may be a key factor contributing to the chronicity of the disease.