The expression of class II MHC and CD34 antigens on human cord blood hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) was investigated upon culturing in the presence of interleukin-3 (IL-3). HPC isolated by "panning" according to their expression of CD34 coexpressed HLA-DR and HLA-DP, and the majority of the CD34+ HPC also expressed HLA-DQ. In the presence of IL-3, the expression of CD34 and class II MHC antigens was found to be gradually lost in culture. Loss of CD34 expression preceded loss of HLA-DR expression. After eight days of culture, CD34-, HLA-DR+ blast cells were obtained that strongly proliferated in response to IL-3, GM-CSF, G-CSF, and M-CSF, and that had the capacity to generate macrophage and granulocyte colonies. After ten days of culture in IL-3, a population of CD34- cells that expressed low levels of HLA-DR (HLA-DRlo) was obtained by FACS-sorting. These CD34-, HLA-DRlo cells lacked colony-forming activity while the population expressing high levels of HLA-DR (HLA-DRhi) contained great numbers of colony-forming cells, and proliferated stronger in response to CSFs than the HLA-DRlo fraction. Finally CD34-, HLA-DR- cells that appeared later in the cultures (14 to 16 days) represented more differentiated cells with only marginal proliferative and no clonogenic capacity. These data indicate that whereas CD34 expression is associated with the multilineage potential of the HPC, HLA-DR expression correlates with overall proliferative capacity of hematopoietic cells during culture in IL-3.