Blood, 1970, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 586-589.
© 1970 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
A Technique for the Morphological Examination
of Hemopoietic Cells Grown in Agar
NYDIA G. TESTA 1 and
BRIAN I. LORD 1
1 Paterson Laboratories, Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute, Manchester,
England
Histological preparations of hemopoietic
cells growing in colonies in soft agar
were made using a modified squash
technique. Colonies were fixed in the
Petri dish with 3:1 acetic-alcohol mixture
for 1 hour. Individual colonies were
pricked out with a microhematocrit tube
and placed on a slide. Squash preparations of the cells were then made by the
standard method. Preparation for staining the cells was made by immersing the
slides in methyl alcohol for 10 minutes.
The slides were finally treated with phosphate buffer at pH 6.4 for 45 minutes
before staining with MacNeal’s tetrachrome. This technique allowed the recovery and cytological examination of
most of the cells growing in a single
colony.
Submitted on May 5, 1970
Accepted on May 22, 1970
