Restoration of hemopoiesis by CFU-S from different backgrounds in the mouse.

Liver from 14 day-old fetuses, bone marrow, spleen, and blood from normal adult mice, and bone marrow, spleen, blood, and liver from adult endotoxin (ET)-treated mice were used for isogeneic hemopoietic restoration in lethally whole-body irradiated mice. The number of CFU-S required to prevent 50% mortality of irradiated mice was about 3 for fetal liver, 7-10 for bone marrow, 20 for normal blood and for blood, liver, and spleen of ET-treated mice, and 80 for spleen of normal mice. CFU-S growth curves in femoral bone marrow and spleen showed some variations but the differences in survival of irradiated and protected mice could not easily be explained by differences in CFU-S growth curves. It can be concluded that the CFU-S from peripheral blood, although somewhat less effective than CFU-S from bone marrow, can be a valuable source of CFU-S for bone marrow transplantation.