Long-term haemopoiesis in human fetal liver cell cultures.

Haemopoiesis in human fetal liver is almost entirely restricted to the erythroid series but when fetal liver cells were cultured under conditions established for the long-term maintenance of adult marrow haemopoiesis, a rapid switch to granulopoiesis was observed. Erythroid progenitor cells (BFU-E) rapidly disappeared, even though no humoral or cellular inhibitors of erythropoiesis could be detected, while myeloid progenitors (CFU-GM) increased in number. When the fetal liver cells were seeded onto stromal layers derived from adult marrow, in which endogenous haemopoiesis had ceased, granulopoiesis was established and maintained for more than a year, considerably longer than has previously been achieved with human haemopoietic cells.