Frequent expression of receptors for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor on human nonhematopoietic tumor cell lines.

Receptors for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were identified on 9 of 35 (26%) human nonhematopoietic tumor cell lines including non-small cell lung cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, and osteosarcoma cells. GM-CSF receptors distributed on these human tumor cells were low affinity types with an equilibrium dissociation constant of 1.5-10.0 nM. Cross-linking studies revealed that the molecular weights of the low affinity GM-CSF receptors were 65-85 kilodaltons. The high affinity receptors identified on hematopoietic cells were not detected on human nonhematopoietic tumor cells which we studied, and we could detect no effects of GM-CSF on cell growth of these tumor cells.