Granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cell preservation at 4 degrees C

Eighteen bone marrows collected from patients without haematological diseases and from normal subjects were tested for the effects of 4 d storage at 4 degrees C on CFU-C growth. Results indicate that unfractionated bone marrow cells may be stored at 4 degrees C for 4 d with 97% +/- 8 SEM recovery of the CFU-C evaluated by the agar culture assay. On the other hand, the same preservation procedure on peripheral blood CFU-C of 13 normal subjects yielded only 5% +/- 2 SEM recovery of in vitro growth capacity. The present results have practical implications. They might be exploited to preserve bone marrow CFU-C for transplantation therapy or laboratory investigation. In contrast this single preservation procedure seems not appropriate for preserving blood CFU-C.