Chromosomes of bone marrow cells obtained from nine patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) were assessed after in vitro co-culture (48 hours culture) with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF), recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF), or recombinant human erythropoietin. Three of the nine MDS cases showed no cytogenetic abnormalities with or without any recombinant human hematopoietic growth factors; one MDS patient with a t(3;4) did not show any change in the proportion of cells with this cytogenetic change. The remaining five cases exhibited changes in the frequency of subclones after the treatment. An increasing number of metaphase cells with less complex chromosome abnormalities was observed in two of the five cases by treatment with rhG-CSF; one of them also showed an increasing number of cells with normal karyotypes. After rhGM-CSF treatment, cells with nonclonal hyperdiploid abnormalities appeared in one MDS patient. After erythropoietin treatment, an increasing number of cells with a prototypic change was observed in one MDS patient, whereas one patient showed an increasing number of cells with an additional chromosome abnormality. These observations indicate that hematopoietic growth factors possibly modify the constitution of marrow cells with multiple chromosome abnormalities and the degree is different in each MDS patient. Furthermore, a chromosome analysis using an in vitro culture system with human recombinant hematopoietic growth factors may be able to detect metaphase cells with additional chromosome abnormalities in some MDS patients.