Continuous lines of basophil/mast cells derived from normal mouse bone marrow.

Nonadherent tissue culture cell lines were established from normal bone marrow of a variety of mouse strains. The lines possessed morphological and histochemical markers of the basophil/mast cell and contained committed stem cells for metachromatic cells. Their derivation from normal marrow and their lack of tumorigenicity despite long-term culture makes these cell lines potentially important for studies of the mechanisms of allergic reactions and inflammation as well as the differentiation pathways involving this subset of hematopoietic cells.