Development of colonies in vitro of mitogen-stimulated mouse T lymphocytes

TECHNIQUES have been developed for the growth of haemopoietic cells (see refs 1 and 2), human T lymphocytes³ and mouse B lymphocytes ⁴ on soft agar. Experiments with mouse lymphocytes suggest that concanavalin A (con A) and phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) stimulate T cells ^5,6, whereas pokeweed induces proliferation of both B and T cells⁷. Based on previously described techniques for obtaining clonal growth of human lymphocyte colonies in vitro³, a procedure has now been developed for inducing clonal proliferation of mitogen-stimulated mouse lymphocytes using a two-layer soft agar technique.