Culture of Erythropoietic Cells from Chick Blastoderms

Erythropoiet ic cells from early chick embryos have been successfully ma in ta ined in vitro bo th in tissue culture (Murray, 1932; Settle, 1954; O'Brien, 1960; Spra t t and Haas, 1960 a and b; Hell, 1964; Levere and Granick, 1967; Wilt , 1967; Hagopian and Ingram, 1971; and Wenk, 1971) as well as in suspension culture (Hagopian et al., 1972). In all cases potent ia l erythropoiet ic cells will cont inue to differentiate into ma tu re erythrocytes dur ing the culture period. The present communica t ion described a technique which provides clean cultures of almost pure populat ions of erythroid cells from chick blastoderms. Some pre l iminary exper iments using the drugs ac t inomycin D and cordycepin are also reported.