Putative role for lithium in human hematopoiesis.

Ingestion of lithium salts increases production of neutrophil granulocytes from the bone marrow in human subjects when the concentration of the ion in blood is within the range 5 to 10 X 10(-4) mol/L. Results of preliminary dose-response experiments appeared to indicate that nanomolar levels of lithium stimulated clonal proliferation of granulocyte precursors from normal bone marrow in vitro, suggesting the possibility that this element may …