Erythroid Progenitor Assays

Creative Biolabs supports erythroid progenitor assays by burst-forming unit-erythrocyte (BFU-E) assays to assist clients in observing different erythroid progenitor activity representative of distinct stages of erythropoiesis, and to study erythroid toxicity.

Burst-Forming Unit-Erythrocyte (BFU-E)

The primary hematopoietic organs are rich in erythroid progenitor cells, which are required to produce enough red blood cells for the body. Erythroid progenitors differentiate progress from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to committed erythroid progenitors which form two different types of colonies termed BFU-E and colonyforming unit-erythroid (CFU-E). BFU-E typically divides slowly and develops into larger erythroblast colonies. Immature slow-diving BFU-E cells differentiate into intermediate mature BFU-E cells, and finally into fast-diving CFU-E cells.

Fig.1 BFU-E assays in response to specific growth factors.¹

Importance of Erythroid Progenitor Assays

Accurate diagnosis is crucial for correct treatment. For instance, in the absence of increased blasts or cytogenetic anomalies, refractory anemia, lineage, and trilineage cytopenias in normal or hypercellular bone marrow might be challenging to detect. Even after several bone marrow analyses, the diagnosis may not always be evident. The detection of BFU-E is a useful tool for the diagnosis and treatment of the aforementioned disorders.

Standard Procedure of BFU-E Assays

BFU-E represents more immature progenitor cells that require multiple trophic factors for growth: 1% bovine serum albumin, 1 U/mL recombinant human erythropoietin, 1.2% methylcellulose, 30% fetal calf serum, and 2.5% human lymphocyte conditioned medium in 1 mL of a medium.

• Human Mononuclear Cell Isolation (a single bone marrow aspirate).
• Place the samples into hematopoietic cell culture medium.
• Plate the cells at culture plates and place them into an incubator maintained at 37 °C with 5% CO2 and >85% humidity.
• Count the BFU-E colonies in 12–14 days.
• Score BFU-E in Petri dishes under an inverted phase-contrast microscope.

Applications of Erythroid Progenitor Assays

• Assist in the diagnosis of blood diseases and understand the pathogenesis of anemia.
• Identify and predict single medicines' or combination therapies' abilities to cause compound-induced anemia (erythroid toxicity).
• Study the biology of cells and erythroid development.
• Recognize imitations of EPO (erythropoietin).
• Describe mechanisms of disordered erythropoiesis in variety of disorders including bone marrow failure syndromes.

Creative Biolabs provides specialized erythroid progenitor assay services and processes to assist you in clinical, basic and preclinical research. Please contact us to inform us of your requirements.

Furthermore, leveraging our proficiency in 3D biology, Creative Biolabs is dedicated to providing cutting-edge technologies and a broad array of 3D models to meet your varied research needs. Our high-quality models include, but are not limited to:

• 3D Spheroid Model
• Organ-on-a-chip Model
• 3D Ex Vivo Human Tissue Model
• Precision-Cut Tissue Slice Model

Related Sections:

• CFC (Colony-Forming Cell) Assays
• High-content Imaging and Analysis
• Tissue Cross-Reactivity Studies
• Gastrointestinal Motility Assays
• Pain-Related Functional Assays