Thrombocytopenia remains an important problem for patients post high-dose chemotherapy
and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The study of megakaryocytes, the direct
precursors of platelets, has been hampered by their relatively low frequency in
hematopoietic tissues. In an attempt to obtain a large number of functional megakaryocytic
cells, we established a serum-free culture system to grow megakaryocytic progenitor cells
derived from normal human bone marrow (BM) and cord blood (CB). Highly purified (purity> …