Human cord blood: a source of transplantable stem cells?
In a preliminary study we have shown that optimally collected human umbilical cord (HUC) blood cells grow significantly better in long term cultures (LTC) than normal adult marrow cells (NBM) p = 0.0007. The LTC findings are supported by the observation in clonogenic assay that a similar number of GM-CFC colonies can be grown from HUC blood and NBM mononuclear cells (MNC). Also there is a trend towards a higher proportion of primitive erythroid (BFU-E) and primitive megakaryocyte colonies (MK-CFC containing greater than 20 cells) in HUC blood compared with NBM. We suggest that further work on the feasibility of a HLA typed, cryopreserved HUC blood bank as a source of unrelated haemopoietic 'stem' cells for clinical transplantation is indicated.
Kay Kendall Laboratory, Paterson Institute, Cancer Research Campaign, Manchester, UK.
J M
JM
Hows
J C
JC
Marsh
B A
BA
Bradley
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T
Luft
L
L
Coutinho
N G
NG
Testa
T M
TM
Dexter
D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn