Colony Growth of Human Peripheral White Blood Cells In Vitro

Peripheral blood from normal humans and patients with circulating atypical mononuclear cells have been studied for their ability to form granulocytic colonies in vitro in the agar-gel method of hematopoietic cell culture. WBC from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia failed to proliferate. Normal human white blood cells gave rise to 0.5-8 colonies per 1 x 10⁶ cells plated, while peripheral blood containing large mononuclear cells gave rise to 15 to 120 colonies per 1 x 10⁶ cells plated, depending upon the number of such cells plated. Colonies averaged 500 cells in size by day 20 of culture and appeared to be granulocytic.