International Journal of Cell Cloning, Vol 4, 287-294, Copyright © 1986 by AlphaMed Press
How reliable are in vitro clonal cultures? Some comments based on hemopoietic cultures
D Metcalf
Clonal cultures in semisolid medium have proved invaluable in analyzing
hemopoietic subpopulations and in detecting their specific growth
regulators. However, they can be subject to certain deficiencies that an
investigator must take care to exclude. These include inabilities of the
particular culture system to detect the true stem cells under study or to
allow self-generation of clonogenic cells or a full expression of their
differentiation potential. Clonal cultures, like conventional cultures, can
be subject to significant cell-cell interactions, complicating attempts to
characterize the action of a test regulatory molecule. Culture data need to
be supplemented by a variety of other data before they can be regarded as
valid evidence that a regulatory molecule detected in vitro is likely to
function in a similar manner in vivo.
