Growth of Haematopoietic Cells of Mouse Fetal Liver in Diffusion Chambers

Abstract

Growth of haematopoietic cells from fetal mouse liver of 14- to 16-day gestation was studied with the diffusion chamber technique. The culture period varied from 1 to 8 days. Cell proliferation and haemoglobin synthesis were seen in erythroblasts during the first days of culture. However, the nearly pure erythroblastic population of the primary inoculum changed to vigorously growing granulocytic cells and macrophages during the 8-day assay period. It seems likely that end-product inhibition is operative within the monocyte-macrophage and granulocyte cell lineages, respectively, when cells grow in diffusion chambers in vivo.

In vivo induction of granulopoiesis in visceral yolk-sac cells by foetal hepatic factors

“…Foetal haemopoietic stem cells do not seem to express their granulocytic potential in the foetal liver microenvironment. However, the foetal liver cell suspensions as well as the adult bone-marrow cells generate almost exclusively granulocytes and to a lesser extend macrophages in diffusion chamber cultures (Symann et al, 19766;Vilpo & Vilpo, 1976). This suggests that the induction of the process of differentiation in our experiments with DDC results from a foetal liver signal, while the choice of a specific pathway, the granulocytic expression in this instance, comes from the diffusion chamber's microenvironment.…”