Testosterone and synthetic and androgens improve the in vitro survival of human marrow progenitor cells in serum-free suspension cultures.

The direct effect of testosterone and its synthetic analogs on the maintenance of human erythroid progenitor cells (BFU-E) and GM-CFC was studied in suspension cultures. To avoid interference by serum components, the experiments were conducted in serum-free media containing insulin, transferrin, selenium, BSA, and alpha-thioglycerol. When added at concentrations between 10(-7)M and 10(-9)M, testosterone improved survival of BFU-E and GM-CFC. Of the nine analogs tested, eight improved BFU-E maintenance in vitro: nandrolone norethandrolone, and oxymetholone were most active, whereas etiocholanolone had only marginal effects. The influence of these compounds on GM-CFC was less pronounced, with testosterone showing the highest activity. It is concluded that testosterone and some of the synthetic analogs tested exert their hemopoietic effect, at least partly, by affecting the maintenance of erythroid and granulocytic stem cells, directly by increasing their survival or proliferation or indirectly by increasing the input from multipotent stem cell pool, or by both mechanisms.