Long-term bone marrow cultures: their use in autologous marrow transplantation

When cultured together, hemopoietic cells and marrow stromal cells can support hemopoiesis in vitro in the absence of added growth factors. The continued production of stem cells, progenitor cells, and mature cells within these "long-term bone marrow cultures" (LTBMC) requires their physical association with the stromal cells. For reasons that are not well understood, leukemic cells often fail to survive in such cultures. We and others have undertaken studies to examine whether LTBMC can be exploited as a way of purging the bone marrow of leukemia patients prior to autologous marrow transplantation.