Clonal proliferation in vitro of individual murine and human hemopoietic cells after fluorescence-activated cell...

A modification of the fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) was used to rapidly and reliably study the clonal proliferation of single hemopoietic cells. Murine FDC-P1 and human cord blood progenitor cells were examined for their ability to proliferate from single cells in 96-well microtiter plates containing agar medium and appropriate stimuli. FACS-sorted FDC-P1 single cells formed colonies in 345 out of 558 wells (62%), which compared favorably with control cultures (53%) and micromanipulated single cells (55%). Similarly, the frequency and type of day-14 colonies arising from cord blood progenitor cells when sorted as single cells by the FACS compared favorably with those grown from micromanipulated single cells or in control cultures.