Blood, 1955, Vol. 10, No. 10, pp. 1010-1022.
© 1955 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
Continuous Tissue Culture of Leukocytes from Human
Leukemic Bloods by Application of
"Gradient" Principles
EDWIN E. OSGOOD 1 and
JOHN H. BROOKE 1
1 Division of Experimental Medicine, University of Oregon Medical School,
Portland, Oregon.
Two methods of tissue culture based on gradient principles which have permitted continuous growth and multiplication of hemic cells for 6 months to 1
year are described. Three long-term cell strains were isolated from the bloods of
patients with acute or chronic leukemias. Success with these methods depends
on previous determination of the gradient factor for the particular cell type to
be cultured. This can easily be accomplished by the gradient culture method,
and these principles are in all probability applicable to all cell types grown in
tissue culture.
The isolation of these cells from blood excludes a fixed tissue cell as the only
type capable of long term multiplication. The development of cells resembling
tissue histiocytes, Dorothy Reed cells, and Langhan’s giant cells from cells cultured from the blood of acute monocytic leukemia lends further support to the
view that the monocytic series and the histiocytic series (reticuloendothelial
cells) are one and the same and can give rise by polyploidy and endomitosis to
many types of giant cells.
Submitted on April 6, 1955
Accepted on July 11, 1955
