Erythropoietic colonies in cultures of human marrow

Abstract

The cell culture method originally devised by Stephenson and Axelrad for erythropoietin dependent erythropoietic colony formation (CFU E) by mouse cells has been adapted to human marrow. Erythropoietic colonies from human marrow contain between 8 and 150 cells and reach maximum growth after 9 days of incubation. Progenitors of larger colonies differ from the total pool of human CFU E in that they have a slower mean sedimentation velocity and a greater erythropoietin requirement. The assay is quantitative and was used to determine the radiation sensitivity of human erythropoietic progenitors. The parameters of the survival curve are: D0=113 ± 7.8, n=1.5±0.15.