Long-Term Tissue Culture of Human Bone Marrow: I. Report of Isolation of a Strain of Cells Resembling Epithelial Cells from Bone Marrow of a Patient with Carcinoma of the Lung

TISSUE CULTURE of human bone marrow has been concerned mainly with the growth, maturation and behavior of the specific myeloid and erythroid elements, with only occasional references to the activity of the other cells.6 Osgood’s numerous contributions have dealt with marrow cells suspended in a fluid medium7; Fieschi and Astaldi have used plasma clot cultures with and without an overlayer of nutrient fluid3; and Plum has made use of an elaborate perfusion apparatus.9 The particular interests of these investigators were studies of the specific parenchymal or hemic cells. On the other hand, Pomerat and his co-workers have used a plasma clot method on coverslips in roller tubes containing fluid medium for making observations of the total behavior of explants of human bone marrow, giving attention to the organization of the stromal tissue and capillaries as well as hemic cells in the outgrowths.10, 17 The types of materials selected by different investigators were determined by their aims and, to some extent, their aims were limited by the types of material at hand. For example, actual fragments of marrow tissue were used by some, whereas others cultured only the cells suspended in the fluid part of aspirated bone marrow, the bulk of the tissue fragments having been allowed to separate out of the specimen by sedimentation or centrifugation.