Growth characteristics of primary tissue cultures from heterotransplanted human colorectal carcinomas in serum-free medium.

Procedures are described for the preparation of reproducible primary cultures from human colorectal tumors transplanted in the athymic nude mouse and for the quantitative evaluation of growth by means of counting suspensions of nuclei from these cultures with a Coulter counter. Growth curves of primary cultures from 11 colorectal tumors in serum-free medium are shown and discussed with respect to the in vitro conditions to be met for the propagation of in vivo stem cell populations.