Human eosinophils are known to lose Ia antigen expression as they mature, and, accordingly, eosinophils obtained from the blood of five eosinophilic donors and three of four normal donors failed to display the major histocompatibility complex class II antigen HLA-DR, as determined by flow cytometry. However, when eosinophils from these nine donors were maintained in culture with recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and murine 3T3 fibroblasts, HLA-DR consistently developed on the eosinophils. By days 4-6 of culture, 24-97% ofeosinophils were HLA-DR+, and the eosinophils remained morphologically mature. In contrast, another class H antigen, HLA-DQ, was not detectable by flow cytometry on eosinophils from eight of nine donors. Cultured eosinophils were able to synthesize Culture of Eosinophils. Enriched eosinophils (1.5 x 106) were cultured in 3 ml of RPMI 1640 medium containing 10%6 (vol/vol) fetal calf serum and 150 units (=50 pM) of rhGM-CSF (expressed in yeast and purified to homogeneity; Genzyme) with an adherent monolayer of Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts (American Type Culture Collection) at 370C (5% C02/95% air) as described (7); 1.5 ml of culture medium was exchanged with fresh RPMI 1640/10% fetal calf serum/rhGM-CSF on days 2, 5, and 7. Nonadherent cells were collected on the indicated days; prior to flow cytometry, cell viability (>90%) was assessed with trypan blue and cell morphology was assessed by staining with phloxine-methylene blue and fast green-neutral red stains for eosinophils (8).Flow Cytometric Analyses. Flow cytometry (FACScan;Becton Dickinson) of 104 cells was performed after 5 x 10' eosinophils were stained with either 10 ,ul of fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated monoclonal antibodies for HLA-DR or CD5 (anti-Leu-1), both IgG K2a light chain (Becton Dickinson). Antigen expression was also assessed with fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated monoclonal antibodies (Becton Dickinson) for HLA-DQ, CD16 (anti-Leu-lla), and anti-Leu-M3. For comparison, HLA-DR expression was also evaluated on activated monocytes that had been isolated from peripheral blood, purified by adherence, and incubated for 24 hr with y-interferon (500 units, Sigma) as described (9).