“…Actually, the previous techniques combined both complex negative selections and culture stages before obtaining satisfactory red cell enrichments. For example, the puri®cation of day-6 erythroid colony-forming cells (ECFC) used in several studies (Fibach et al, 1989;Sawada et al, 1989;Dai et al, 1991Dai et al, , 1998Wickrema et al, 1992;Giampaolo et al, 1994;Muta et al, 1995) consisted of a multistep procedure comprising, after Ficoll-Hypaque separation, sheep erythrocyte rosetting of lymphoid T cells, overnight adherence for depletion of monocytes, followed by the use of a mixture of four monoclonal antibodies to remove granulocytes, B lymphocytes, NK cells and residual T cells. Thereafter, cells were cultured in methylcellulose in the presence of 30% FCS and Epo for 6 d, then collected from the culture and submitted again to adhesion and Ficoll-Hypaque separation before secondary culture in the presence of FCS, human AB serum and Epo.…”