Trochanter bone marrow: a source of normal human colony forming cells

In vitro studies of human hemopoiesis are often limited by the availability of normal bone marrow. We have overcome this difficulty by taking advantage of the bone marrow fragments removed during total hip replacement. We report here a comparative study of the colony forming capacity of trochanter and sternal or iliac crest marrow from five hematologically normal donors. Our data indicate that trochanter marrow is a reliable source of normal in vitro granulocyte/macrophage colony forming cells.