Erythroid burst formation in cultures of bone marrow and peripheral blood from patients with refractory anemia.

We have studied the growth of erythroid bursts in methylcellulose cultures from bone marrow (7 cases) and peripheral blood cells (17 cases) of patients with primary acquired refractory anemias. In most cases, erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-E) were either absent or present in lower than normal numbers, and these levels remained low to absent in sequential studies. In 2 patients, circulating BFU-E were initially higher than normal, but subsequently declined to normal levels. 1 patient had low-normal numbers of circulating BFU-E initially, but these declined to zero in a later study. No clinical or routine hematological features permitted distinction between patients with initially high BFU-E and those with initially low or absent BFU-E. These findings parallel those reported for granulocyte-macrophage progenitors in refractory anemias, and support the concept that erythroid progenitor cells in these disorders are influenced by the disordered hematopoiesis.