Preparation and light-microscopic examination of fixed hematopoietic cells in soft agar.

Hematopoietic cells from the blood or bone marrow (of leukemic and nonleukemic patients) grown in vitro using soft agar tissue-culture technics may be fixed in formalin, embedded in paraffin, sectioned, and mounted on glass slides. Light microscopic examination of these sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin and with other histologic stains provides information useful in investigative and diagnostic hematology. Morphologic interpretation of the characteristics of cultured cells is within the capability of pathologists and clinical hematologists. The slides provide a permanent record of growth in vitro.