Figure 5.

Correlating gene expression and stem cell support. The ability of stromal cell lines to support enriched stem cell populations was studied. (A) Limiting-dilution CAFC assay on each stroma at 4 weeks. (B) Stem cells were cultured on each stroma, and then after 4 weeks, were replated into limiting-dilution CAFC assay onto fresh AFT024 monolayers. This assay determines the ability of each stroma to maintain stem cells with a capacity to generate secondary CAFC. Limiting-dilution frequency was determined at 37% negative wells according to Poisson statistics and is shown in parentheses for both graphs. The ability of each line to maintain stem cells in the secondary CAFC assay relative to AFT024 is; 2012 (32%), 2058 (31%), and 2018 (1%). These data correlate well with the results from the gene expression analysis in Fig. 4.