The Growth of Colonies of Human Bone Marrow and Tumour Cells in Soft Agar in Diffusion Chambers

Abstract

A series of studies over recent years have shown that diffusion chambers containing soft agar incubated in the peritoneal cavities of irradiated mice may be used to grow colonies from normal murine bone marrow cells, human marrow cells, human tumour cells grown as xenografts in immune-deprived mice, and human tumour cells taken directly from patients. This technique has been used to study the sensitivity of the clonogenic cells to a variety of cytotoxic agents and to compare the sensitivities of human marrow and tumour cells. A wide range of differential chemosensitivity is observed.