Haemopoietic stem cell concentration and CFUs in DNA synthesis in bone marrow from different bone regions

Summary The concentration of colony-forming cells (CFUs) is about 40% less in sternal marrow than in the marrow of lumbar vertebrae and femora. Marrow of trabecular bones in lumbar vertebrae contains fewer mitotically active CFUs than marrow of trabecular bones in the femoral distal epiphysis and metaphysis, or the peripheral marrow near the cortical bone in the femoral diaphysis. Only a minor part of the variability of the results in the CFU-assay is due to differences in CFU-concentrations between individual donor mice; pooling of the cell suspensions does not substantially decrease variability. Specific pathogen-free mice yield the same results as BALB/c mice from conventional breeding.Acknowledgments. This work was performed with support of Euratom contract No. 233-771 BIO B. We thank L. Tessens for his excellent technical assistance.