A proliferative defect of marrow cells in experimental chronic hypoplastic marrow failure (aplastic anaemia)

Marrow cells from control mice and mice with chronic hypoplastic marrow failure (CHMF, aplastic anaemia) were grown in tissue culture and growth was assessed by measuring the number of cells/colony and uptake of 3H-thymidine/colony. Cells from mice with CHMF showed impaired proliferation in response to colony stimulating factor. Mixing experiments suggested that the impairment of proliferation was not dut to alteration in suppressor or helper cells but to an intrinsic lesion of the marrow cells themselves.