Murine leukemia inhibitory factor enhances retroviral-vector infection efficiency of hematopoietic progenitors.

We have investigated the in vitro effects of the cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) on normal murine hematopoietic progenitors by measuring recovery and retroviral vector infection efficiency of 13-day posttransplant, spleen-colony-forming cell (CFU-S 13) in short-term culture. Up to a twofold increase in CFU-S13 recovery was observed, from 9.7 x 10(-5) cells in untreated controls to 17.8 to 19.5 x 10(-5) cells, depending on the concentration of LIF. Histologic analysis of spleen colonies from control and LIF-treated marrows demonstrated that there was no detectable alteration in the differentiative potential of CFU-S13. The efficiency of CFU-S13 infection was increased from 15% in untreated controls to 84% to 91% in LIF-treated marrows. Analysis of proviral integration sites in spleen colonies indicated that some CFU-S13 precursors were infected in the LIF-treated marrows.