Potentiality of the murine colony-forming cells detected by an in vivo diffusion chamber culture system.

Culture of a mixture of bone marrow cells with and without T6 chromosome marker in diffusion chambers in mice yielded colonies (CFU-DG) containing cells of a single karyotype, suggesting clonality. Injection of individual CFU-DG colonies into lethally irradiated mice resulted in increased spleen colony formation on day 12 (CFU-S). The possibility of endogenous origin was excluded by demonstrating the presence of T6 marker in both CFU-DG and CFU-S colonies in karyotypically normal hosts. These findings suggest that the cells giving rise to granulocytic colonies in diffusion chambers also can give rise to multipotential hemopoietic cells.