Making the in-vitro model closer to actual B lymphopoiesis in the bone marrow.
After more than a decade since Whitlock and Witte established an in-vitro long-term culture of bone marrow B lineage cells, c-kit+IL-7-receptor(R)+B precursor cells in fresh bone marrow are now able to be grown under a fully defined culture condition containing only BSA, transferrin, IL-7 and the ligand for c-kit(Kit-ligand;KL) as protein components. On the other hand, previous studies indicated that the actual intramarrow B-cell-genesis is a complex process involving multiple stromal cell-derived molecules. Thus, the next step for the culture of B-cell genesis is to develop this simple culture into a new defined culture of B-cell-genesis that is closer to the actual process. In this article, we will describe how this defined culture condition has developed from the original Whitlock-Witte type culture, how the B precursors under this culture-condition are different from that in the bone marrow, and finally our biased view on the future direction to which this defined culture should develop.
Yasunaga
M
M
Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan.
Adachi
S
S
Itoh
N
N
Nishikawa
S
S
D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006410:Hematopoiesis / Q000276:immunology*; D018448:Models, Immunological