Extracellular ubiquitin regulates the growth of human hematopoietic cells.

We investigated the effects of extracellular ubiquitin on the colony formation of human hematopoietic progenitor cells (CFU-GM, CFU-E and BFU-E) and a granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF)-dependent human myeloblastic leukemic cell line, OCI/AML/1a. Ubiquitin exhibited inhibitory effects on CFU-GM, CFU-E, BFU-E and OCI/AML/1a colony formation. Extracellular ubiquitin also inhibited the growth of KT3 (T lymphoblast), K562 (erythroleukemia) and Daudi (Burkitt's lymphoma) cells, stimulated the growth of HL60 (promyelocytic leukemia) and Jurkat (T-ALL) cells and showed no effect on the growth of U937 cells (monocytic leukemia). These results indicate that another, previously unrecognized function of extracellular ubiquitin is to regulate hematopoiesis.