Motility Studies of Human Postmortem Bone Marrow

The source of an adequate supply of human bone marrow for transplantation purposes presents a distinct problem. The use of cadaver marrow has been suggested.

Studies of 70 human cadaver bone marrow preparations obtained from 1.5 to over 102 hours postmortem were examined by tissue culture and photomicrographic technics to correlate the survival of leukocyte motility with the time postmortem.

Motile cells were present in marrow up to and including 50 hours after death, thus suggesting the possibility of using such marrow as a practical source of viable marrow cells.