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..