We have previously characterized stromal progenitor cells contained in fetal bone marrow by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) using the differential expression of CD34, CD38, and HLA-DR, and found that a small number were contained within the CD34(+) cell fraction. In the present study, the frequency of stromal progenitors in both the CD34+ and CD34- subpopulations from samples of fetal and adult bone marrow was approximately one in 5,000 of the mononuclear cell fraction. Using multiparameter single-cell sorting, one in 20 fetal bone marrow cells with the CD34+, CD38-, HLA-DR-, CDw90+ phenotype were clonogenic stromal progenitors, whereas greater than one in five single cells with the CD34-, CD38-, HLA-DR-, CDw90+ phenotype formed stromal cultures. We found that cultures initiated by hematopoietic and stromal progenitors contained within the CD34+ fraction of bone marrow cells formed mixed hematopoietic/stromal cell cultures that maintained the viability of the hematopoietic progenitor cells for 3 weeks in the absence of added hematopoietic cytokines. We characterized some of the hematopoietic cytokines synthesized by stromal cultures derived from either CD34+ or CD34- bone marrow cells using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) amplification of interleukin-3 (IL-3), stem cell factor (SCF), CD34, Flt3/Flk2 ligand (FL), and thrombopoietin (TPO) mRNA sequences. We found ubiquitous expression of TPO mRNA in greater than 90% of stromal cultures initiated by either CD34+ or CD34- cells, and variable expression of SCF, FL, and CD34 mRNA. In particular, SCF and CD34 mRNA were detected only in stromal cultures initiated by CD34+ bone marrow cells, although the differences between CD34+ and CD34- stromal cells were not statistically significant. IL-3 mRNA was not found in any stromal cultures. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of soluble SCF and TPO present in culture supernatants demonstrated that biologically significant amounts of protein were secreted by some cultured stromal cells: eight of 16 samples of conditioned media from stromal cultures initiated by fetal and adult bone marrow contained more than 32 pg/mL SCF (in the linear range of the ELISA), with a median value of 32 pg/mL (range, 9 to 230), while 13 of 24 samples of conditioned media had more than 16 pg/mL TPO (in the linear range of the ELISA), with a median of 37 pg/mL (range, 16 to 106). Our data indicate that stromal cultures initiated by single bone marrow cells can make FL, SCF, and TPO. Local production of early-acting cytokines and TPO by stromal cells may be relevant to the regulation of hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal and megakaryocytopoiesis in the bone marrow microenvironment.