Some unusual observations of organoid tissues and blood elements in monolayer cultures

Abstract

Organoid structures containing blood elements appeared in each of the following monolayer cultures: Embryonic human ovary, skin, kidney and stomach; embryonic rabbit lung and kidney medulla. They appeared when cultures were in the fibroblast stage, with the exception of a human skin culture and rabbit kidney medulla which were epithelioid. Blood vessels were found in the cultures of human ovary. They were of capillary type and contained mature red blood cells and polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Aggregates of erythrocytes were found in all the organoid structures examined. Normoblast-like cells were also found in most of the fragments. The organoid structures showed further evidence of differentiation, namely, fragments from human ovary culture containing tubular structures lined with columnar epithelium; fragments from rabbit lung culture containing rudimentary alveoli, while a fragment from rabbit kidney culture contained a group of cells resembling a tubule. Blood elements have not been found in cultures of adult tissues.