ABSTRACT
BACKGROUNDThe use of stem cells for various clinical applications is highly expected and the production of good quality stem cells is very critical for basic studies. In the bone marrow, hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells form a unique niche in which the oxygen tension is low. Hypoxia may have a role in maintaining stem cell fate, self renewal and multi-potency. We investigated whether low oxygen culture would be beneficial for hematopoietic stem cell stemness.METHODSBone marrow cells from 8-10 week aged mice were subjected to hypoxic conditioning by culture for 7days in 20%, 3% and 1% oxygen. For culture,1x105 cell/ml were seeded in colony forming assay in each dish. During the culturing, cell colonies were checked once every three days. Compared to normoxic cells, hypoxic cells weremorphologicallyundifferentiated and counted by Olympus IX71 microscope.RESULTSMore colonies were observed at 3% and 1% oxygen. Statistical significances were identified with granulocytes and macrophage colony (p<0.05) in hypoxic condition.CONCLUSIONSOur data suggests low physiological oxygen culture could improve the stemness of macrophage and granulocytes colony. Long term culture will be necessary to confirm whether low physiological oxygen levels also improve genomic stability.