EFFECTS OF SHORT-TERM CULTURE ON POPULATIONS OF HEMOPOIETIC PROGENITOR CELLS FROM MOUSE MARROW

We have studied the response of progenitor cells in mouse marrow to short-term cultivation in cell culture. In the presence of a feeder layer of mouse renal tubules, the number of granulocyte progenitors able to form colonies in cell culture showed a net increase. No such increase in numbers of stem cells detected by the spleen colony assay was observed under the same conditions, although there was some stimulation of uptake of tritiated thymidine into these cells. A rapid decrease in the numbers of both types of progenitor cells occurred in the cultures in the absence of a feeder layer. However, when marrow cell populations that had been cultivated for 2 days in the absence of a feeder layer were transplanted into irradiated mice, the surviving stem cells detected by the in vivo assay showed a prolonged phase of rapid growth, resulting in a more pronounced 'overshoot' in the growth curve.