Morphology of cells grown in the CFU-GEMM tissue culture assay from mononuclear cells obtained from peripheral blood and bone marrow of normal volunteers.

In ten healthy volunteers studies were done to assess the morphology, immunocytology, and cytochemical properties of mononuclear hematopoietic stem cells isolated from normal human peripheral blood and bone marrow grown in semisolid matrix mixed lineage colony-forming unit (CFU-GEMM) culture. In three volunteers, peripheral blood and bone marrow samples were collected simultaneously; the progeny were remarkably similar in each of the three paired cultures, although macrophages were more numerous in the bone marrow cultures. Three peripheral blood samples were cultured following frozen storage with 10% DMSO at-150 degrees C for approximately 5 months. Megakaryopoiesis was present in each case, demonstrating the full hematopoietic potential of previously frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Four other peripheral blood samples and one bone marrow sample were cultured and, in each case, cells of all hematopoietic cell lines were present. Bone marrow, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and previously frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells grown in the CFU-GEMM tissue culture assay showed the presence of granulocyte-macrophage, erythroid, and megakaryocytic cell lines.