Ectopic implantation studies using Sl/Sld marrow and recipients.

Marrow from Sl/Sld mice (in which the hemopoietic stromal microenvironment is defective), when implanted beneath the renal capsule of a normal littermate, produces an ectopic marrow site containing the same number of stem cells (CFU-S) and nearly as many GM-CFC as that obtained by implanting marrow from a normal littermate. On the other hand, a marrow plug from an Sl/Sld donor implanted beneath the renal capsule of an Sl/Sld littermate produces less than half the number of CFU-S and about 10% of the number of GM-CFC. This suggests that the recipient of the ectopic implant can contribute in some way to the stromal environment of the grafted marrow.