Plethoric mice treated with pharmacological doses of estradiol have decreased concentration of erythropoietin-responsive cells (ERC) in the marrow. We used the methylcellulose-culture system for growth of erythroid stem cells (CFU-E and BFU-E) to define more accurately these estrogen-induced changes. As an animal model we utilized plethoric mice given repeated injections of estradiol cypionate and found that at 14 days after the onset of treatment there was no significant change in the concentration of femoral CFU-E whereas there was a significant decrease of the BFU-E content. Both CFU-E and BFU-E increased progressively in the spleen over a 42-day period. Addition of estradiol directly to the cell-culture system showed no effect on CFU-E growth but induced a significant depression of BFU-E growth. This depression seemed to require the presence of adherent cells. It is our hypothesis that estrogens suppress only the early stages of erythroid proliferation and/or differentiation by a mechanism involving possibly the stromal (adherent) cells of the marrow microenvironment.