[Long-term culture of normal and leukemia bone marrow cells]

Using long-term bone marrow culture (LTBMC), we studied the in vitro growth status of bone marrow nucleated cells from 5 normal subjects and 14 patients with acute leukemia. The results showed that LTBMC could support normal hematopoiesis selectively, and in the meantime, inhibit the leukemic progenitor growth. Our preliminary clinical application indicated that this culture system could be used to purge the autologous bone marrow graft in vitro for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.