Development of hematopoietic spleen colonies in nonirradiated genetically normal mice.

The question as to whether prior irradiation or injection of cytotoxic drugs is essential for the development of spleen colonies was examined in genetically normal mice. Mixtures of lymph node and bone marrow cells from C57BL mice were injected into (C57BL X CBA-T6T6) F1 hybrid mice without pretreatment. Hematopoietic nodules were observed in the spleens of F1 hybrid mice killed 18 days after injection. The average number of nodules increased linearly with increased numbers of injected bone marrow cells. Hematopoietic stem cells (CFU-S) and dividing cells in the nodules were shown to be of C57BL origin. Histologic examination showed that erythroid cell colonies predominated over granulocytic cell colonies. These results suggest that any kind of treatment that causes the depletion of CFU-S in the spleen of hosts would provide a suitable environment for the production of colonies by transplanted CFU-S.