Hydroxyurea increases in vitro, antigen-independent B cell development in bone marrow.

The fluorescence-activated cell sorter and Coulter counter were used to study the effect of hydroxyurea in vitro in B cell development in 24 hr cultures of adult mouse bone marrow. This agent, which kills cells in the S phase of the cell cycle, caused a 40-70% increase in the absolute number of B cells in bone marrow cultures as compared with untreated cultures. There was also an increased response to the B cell mitogen, bacterial lipopolysaccharide, as measured by the stimulation index for 3H-thymidine incorporation. Hydroxyurea in vitro increased B cells numbers in fetal liver which contains pre-B cells, but not in lymph nodes or spleen which lack these cells.