Generation of murine hematopoietic precursor cells from macrophage high-proliferative-potential colony-forming cells.

High-proliferative-potential colony-forming cells (HPP-CFC) have been described as primitive murine macrophage progenitors. We have previously demonstrated the existence of two populations of HPP-CFC: one population, termed HPP-CFC-1, is stimulated by the combination of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) plus haemopoietin-1 (H-1) and actively generates a second population of HPP-CFC, termed HPP-CFC-2. HPP-CFC-2 are stimulated by CSF-1 plus interleukin-3 and generate macrophage CFC that differentiate to form mature macrophages. In this study, we have demonstrated that HPP-CFC-1, when stimulated by CSF-1 plus H-1, generate colony-forming cells (CFC) for the megakaryocyte and granulocyte lineages in addition to HPP-CFC-2 and M-CFC. No CFC were detected with erythroid potential. In addition, HPP-CFC-1 generated cells that formed day-13 spleen colonies, cells that repopulated the bone marrow, cells with platelet-repopulating ability, and cells with erythroid-repopulating ability in lethally irradiated mice. These data support previous data that the HPP-CFC-1 represent a primitive hemopoietic cell population and demonstrate the multipotentiality but not totipotentiality of these cells.