Preservation of hematopoietic stem cells in cadaveric marrow.

CFU-C assays were performed on unselected cadavers of various postmortem intervals to determine the survival of hemopoietic stem cells in cadaveric marrows. Successful growth was achieved in eight of ten cases up to 11 hours post mortem. The two marrows in which growth was unsuccessful were from patients with underlying diseases that would have made growth impossible even if the marrow was obtained during life. Six cases in which marrow was obtained 11 to 23 hours post mortem showed no proliferative capacity. The average CFU-C in the eight cases with growth activity was 25.8 +/- 16 compared with 40.6 +/- 35 for 61 hospital patients for whom antemortem marrow cells were available for culture. These two meanings are not significantly different statistically. These findings demonstrated the persistence of hemopoietic stem cells in cadaveric marrows, showing the cadaver to be a potentially abundant source of these cells.