Abrogation of IL-3 dependent growth requires a functional v-src gene product: evidence for an autocrine growth cycle.

We have investigated the ability of the v-src oncogene to abrogate growth factor dependent growth in the interleukin-3 dependent myeloid progenitor cell line 32D c13. Growth factor independent clones were isolated following infection of 32D c13 cells with murine retroviruses containing the v-src oncogene. v-src was demonstrated to be directly responsible for growth factor independence in experiments utilizing temperature-sensitive v-src mutants. The v-src infected cells released a growth factor capable of stimulating the proliferation of normal 32D c13 cells. Analysis of the mRNA from v-src infected 32D c13 did not identify the putative autocrine growth factor as one of the currently identified murine or human hematopoietic growth factors.