Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases from human bone marrow stromal cell line KM 102 has erythroid‐potentiating activity, suggesting its possibly bifunctional role in the hematopoietic microenvironment

Abstract
In this study, we demonstrated that tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP) produced by human bone marrow stromal cell line KM-102 had erythroid-potentiating activity (EPA) which stimulates the proliferation of erythroid progenitor cells. We, then, propose a scheme for the bifunctional role ofTIMP/EPA in hematopoietic microenvironment, that is, the maintenance of the integrity of bone marrow matrix and the proliferation of erythroid progenitor cells proceeding on the matrix.