Liquid storage of unseparated human bone marrow. Evaluation of hematopoietic progenitors by clonal assay.

Marrow from five donors was aspirated into a small volume of heparinized culture media, filtered, and stored in 10-ml nominal plastic bags at 4, 22, and 37 degrees C, respectively, for 7 days with and without agitation. Samples were taken at 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 days, respectively, for determination of cell numbers, trypan blue viability, and committed colony-forming unit-granulocyte-monocyte (CFU-GM) and erythroid burst-forming unit (BFU-E) and colony-forming unit (CFU-E), as well as multipotent (CFU-MIX), hematopoietic progenitors. Glucose and pH decreased with storage, most markedly at higher storage temperatures. Recovery of recovered cells exceeded 90 percent under all conditions at 7 days. Viability of committed and multipotent progenitors was maintained fairly well for 3 days at 4 and 22 degrees C, but fell off rapidly after 1 day at 37 degrees C. Recovery of progenitor cells stored 7 days was relatively poor. Best maintenance was achieved for 3 days using 4 degrees C storage without agitation.