Self-maintenance ability and kinetics of haemopoietic stroma precursors.

The use of repeated femoral curettages and repeated passages of ectopic haemopoietic foci had demonstrated the capacity of stromal precursor cells for repeated formation of haemopoietic microenvironment. During this process the stromal precursors undergo no less than ten to twelve mitoses. Precursors of bone marrow stroma proliferating slowly, if at all, in normal mice are triggered into cell cycle, as raevealed by suicide methods, during formation of the ectopic haemopoietic focus.