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 number..