Marrow repopulating cells, but not CFU-S, establish long-term in vitro hemopoiesis on a marrow-derived stromal layer.

We have studied the ability of subpopulations of hemopoietic stem cells, obtained from murine bone marrow using elutriation and multiparameter sorting, to establish and maintain hemopoiesis following their deposition on irradiated stromal layers of long-term bone marrow cultures. Two fractions were obtained that differed in their mitochondrial activity as indicated by the retention of Rhodamine-123 dye. The Rhodamine-bright cell fraction, containing the majority of day-8 and day-12 spleen colony-forming units (CFU-S) and in vitro clonable progenitors, showed hemopoiesis only in the first weeks. In contrast, the Rhodamine-dull fraction, which was depleted for day-8 CFU-S and which contained the majority of cells with marrow-repopulating ability, maintained hemopoiesis for a prolonged time after an initial week of delay. These data fully support and extend previously published in vivo data, indicating that CFU-S have low capability to generate new CFU-S and granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM), and that cells responsible for long-term generation of hemopoietic precursors and for maintenance of hemopoiesis both in vivo and in vitro are the precursors of CFU-S and of in vitro clonable progenitor cells. In addition, the present findings form the basis for an in vitro assay for a primitive precursor of CFU-S, namely the marrow-repopulating cell.