Colony Production in vitro by Normal Polycythaemic and Anaemic Bone Marrow

Abstract

THE growth of colonies from mouse bone marrow cells in solid agar medium in vitro has been described recently¹. The colony growth required stimulation by feeder layer cells, the most effective of which were neonatal mouse kidney cells. Although the colonies appear to arise by the proliferation of single cells, the colony cell population is a mixture of myeloid cells and mononuclear cells and the identity of the cells responsible for the initiation of colony formation has not been established. In order to gain more information on the in vitro colony forming cells the following studies have been made comparing the numbers of colony forming cells in normal, polycythaemic and anaemic mouse bone marrows.