Previous studies have revealed a consistent defect in the cycling behavior of primitive neoplastic progenitor cells in patients with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1)-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). This is manifested both in vivo and in long-term cultures of CML cells as an increased rate of turnover amongst Ph1-positive progenitor cell types whose counterparts in normal individuals are mainly quiescent. To determine whether this deregulated proliferative activity of primitive Ph1-positive cells might be explained by a perturbation in the production of growth factors that regulate the turnover of primitive normal cells, the possibility of either autocrine or paracrine mechanisms of Ph1-positive cell stimulation was investigated. Northern blot analysis of total cellular RNA extracted from various CML blood cell populations showed no evidence of increased expression of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF), interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha), IL-1 beta, IL-3, IL-6, or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) compared with analogous normal peripheral blood cell populations in which transcripts for most of these growth factors are not detectable. A similar analysis of RNA extracted from the adherent layer of 4-week-old long-term cultures established from CML marrow (in which the Ph1-positive cells typically disappear) or from CML blood seeded onto normal marrow adherent layers (in which Ph1-positive cells typically persist) also revealed no difference in growth factor production compared with analogous cultures established with exclusively normal cells. For some of the growth factors studied, the assessment of bioactivity detectable in the medium confirmed the RNA data. There was also no evidence of a decreased production of putative inhibitors of primitive hematopoietic cells, ie transforming growth factor-beta and macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha by CML versus normal cells or cultures. These results do not support the existence of BCR-ABL induced autocrine or paracrine mechanisms in CML and suggest that constitutive activation of events normally dependent on growth factor receptor stimulation is more likely to underlie the lack of proliferation control exhibited by primitive Ph1-positive cells.