One-stage stimulation of human T-lymphocyte colony-forming units (TL-CFU) in a micro agar culture in glass capillaries.

A one-stage micro-culture assay in glass capillary tubes was developed for colony growth of human T lymphocytes. Colony growth by this method did not depend on the addition of growth factors, human serum and erythrocytes. Advantages of this method are its low consumption of materials and the fact that high numbers of cultures can be prepared and evaluated within a relatively short period of time. Compared to the two-stage method, the one-stage method requires a higher number of seeded cells and a reduced agar concentration, suggesting that cell interactions are required for human T-lymphocyte colony formation.