Open AccessCOLONY FORMATION IN AGAR: IN VITRO ASSAY FOR HAEMOPOIETIC STEM CELLS
Author(s) -
Dicke K. A.,
Platenburg M. G. C.,
Bekkum D. W.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
cell proliferation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-2184
pISSN - 0960-7722
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2184.1971.tb01554.x
Subject(s) - agar , colony forming unit , biology , in vitro , stem cell , agar plate , embryo , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , bacteria , genetics
Using a method in which embryo fibroblasts were used as feeder layers, the colony forming capacity in agar of a variety of mouse haemopoietic suspensions was compared with their CFU s content. A striking parallelism between the results of the two assays was found. In addition, under certain conditions higher numbers of CFU s could be retrieved from 5‐day‐old agar colonies than were originally plated, indicating that the CFC a (Colony Forming Cell agar) may fulfil the requirements of pluripotency as well as of self‐renewal, both prerequisites for any haemopoietic stem cell candidate. Although our data by no means provide direct proof that the CFC s and the CFC a are identical, they certainly support such a concept. the contradictory findings by others that CFU s and CFU c (Colony Forming Unit culture) can be separated on a velocity gradient is attributed to different culture conditions, in other words, that their CFU cè are not identical with our CFU a . Our findings also indicate that for mouse cells our soft agar colony assay meets the criteria of a quantitative assay for haemopoietic stem cells and that extension of this technique to bone marrow of primates including humans seems to be justified.