title: Differentiation and "renewal" of multipotential cells in vitro.
abstract: Cells obtained from in vitro colonies expressing multiple hemopoietic lineages (mixed-erythroid colonies) have been shown to produce secondary mixed-erythroid colonies. When individual mixed-erythroid colonies are studied, considerable variation has been observed in the capacity to produce secondary mixed-erythroid colonies. That this heterogeneity in self-renewal capacity may be an intrinsic property of the primary mixed-erythroid colonies has been shown by the ability to fractionate fetal liver mixed-erythroid colony-forming cells with high and low levels of secondary colony formation. In addition mixed-erythroid colony-forming cells obtained from spleens consistently produce higher numbers of secondary mixed-erythroid colonies (up to 250 secondary mixed-erythroid colonies per primary mixed-erythroid colony) than bone marrow-derived mixed-erythroid colonies (no secondary mixed-erythroid colonies obtained) suggesting that external factors may predetermine the ability of primary mixed-erythroid colony-forming cells to self-renew in vitro. The ability of supernatants obtained from long-term marrow cultures to enhance secondary colony formation by bone marrow-derived mixed-erythroid colony-forming cells raises the possibility of defining the nature of the proposed external factors that determine stem cell self-renewal.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D002469:Cell Separation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D003470:Culture Media; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D004920:Erythropoiesis; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media