| Abstract: | The relative proliferative capacity of haematopoietic cell populations derived from 22-week-old adult bone marrow and 14–18 day foetal liver has been studied in lethally irradiated syngeneic recipients by means of chromosome markers. Although starting at a disadvantage in terms of the number of colony-forming units (stem cells) injected, the foetal liver-derived populations steadily increased their relative numbers in the myeloid and lymphoid tissues over a period of several weeks until a plateau was reached. It is suggested that stem cells in foetal liver have, on average, a higher intrinsic capacity for self-renewal than do those in bone marrow, and that this capacity falls to the adult level within about ten weeks of transfer. |
