Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation using stem cells fractionated by lectins: VI, in vitro analysis of human and monkey bone marrow cells fractionated by sheep red blood cells and soybean agglutinin.

A procedure was developed for the isolation from human bone marrow of a cell fraction enriched for haematopoietic precursors and depleted of T lymphocytes. T cells are eliminated from bone marrow by rosetting with sheep red blood cells, followed by differential agglutination of residual T lymphocytes in the non-rosetting population by the lectin, soybean agglutinin. The fraction unagglutinated by the lectin contains a high proportion of colony-forming cells and non detectable T cell alloreactivity in vitro. Similar results were obtained with monkey bone-marrow cells, suggesting that monkeys can be used for evaluation of this fractionation technique for bone-marrow transplantation across histocompatibility barriers.