The growth-promoting activities of interleukin-10 (IL-10) were assessed in hematopoietic colony-forming assays. We found that IL-10 failed to support the clonal growth of normal and lineage-depleted (Lin-) bone marrow (BM) cells. Furthermore, IL-10 neither enhanced nor suppressed colony formation by eosinophil, neutrophil, or macrophage progenitors when combined with a variety of factors. IL-10 stimulated a modest increase in erythropoietin (Epo)-dependent erythroid colonies but had no effect on the burst-promoting activities of IL-3. However, the combination of IL-10 plus IL-3 resulted in the enhanced growth of mast cell progenitors. In addition to its mast cell stimulating activity, IL-10 promoted the growth of megakaryocyte (Mk) and Mk-mixed colonies when combined with Epo or with Epo plus IL-3, IL-6, or IL-11. Comparative studies showed that the megakaryocyte potentiating activity of IL-10 is roughly equivalent to that of IL-6 and IL-11. In experiments using Thy1loSca1+ stem cells, IL-10 was shown to enhance the number of cells initiating IL-3-dependent colony formation. IL-10 also costimulated increased colony formation when used with IL-3 and another factor such as IL-1, IL-6, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Cellular analysis of the resulting colonies indicated that IL-10 increases the formation of multilineage colonies containing erythrocytes, megakaryocytes, and/or mast cells. The ability of IL-10 to cooperatively regulate various stages of hematopoietic development is discussed.