Clonogenicity of multiple populations of human glioma cells in vitro sorted by DNA content.

Malignant human gliomas have a highly variable distribution of cell nuclei, consisting of diploid and/or other populations in terms of nuclear DNA content. In order to study in vitro clonogenicity of each population, dissociated or cultured human glioma cells were stained with 20 microM/ml of Hoechst 33342 dye (which stains viable DNA with minimal cell kill), and were sorted sterile into separate populations, based on specific nuclear DNA content, for clonogenicity assay. The colony-forming efficiency (CFE) of tumor cells plated immediately after disaggregation of the biopsy specimens ranged from 0.0044 to 0.149%, and the CFEs increased dramatically with successive passages (to 5 to 40%). The CFEs of the individual populations sorted according to DNA content were similar within individual tumors. These results suggest not only that malignant gliomas are composed of multiple populations in terms of DNA content, but also that each of these populations contain clonogenic cells. The morphologic structure of cells within and among colonies did not appear to relate to DNA content.