The effects of constitutive cytokine gene expression on the growth-factor-dependence of the human erythroleukemic TF-1 cell line have been determined. TF-1 cells normally require the presence of exogenous cytokines to proliferate in vitro. TF-1 cells were transfected with constructs containing either the germline granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene or the GM-CSF gene linked to the Moloney murine leukemia virus (Mo-MuLV) long terminal repeat. The Mo-MuLV-LTR, which contains a strong transcriptional enhancer, was added to stimulate the constitutive expression of the GM-CSF gene. Transfection with the germline GM-CSF gene did not abrogate the cytokine dependence of TF-1 cells, indicating that inheritance of an extra copy did not result in sufficient GM-CSF expression to abrogate cytokine dependence. In contrast, transfection with the LTR-modified GM-CSF gene resulted in the isolation of cells that proliferated in the absence of exogenous GM-CSF. The LTR increased nascent transcription and accumulation of GM-CSF mRNA transcripts, which had a normal half-life. This increase in GM-CSF expression led to secretion of sufficient GM-CSF to support the growth of the parental TF-1 cells. These results indicate that the deregulated expression of human cytokine genes induced by certain retroviral LTRs can result in their conversion into hematopoietic-specific oncogenes. These modified human cell lines provide a model to investigate autocrine transformation and therapy of acute myelogenous leukemia as well as other hematopoietic disorders.