Patent ID: 7354729

Claim:
A high-throughput assay method for rapidly determining the proliferative status of a population of primitive hematopoietic cells, the method comprising the steps of: (a) incubating a cell population comprising primitive hematopoietic cells in a cell growth medium comprising fetal bovine serum having a concentration of between 0% and about 30%, methyl cellulose having a concentration of between about 0.4% and about 0.7%, and in an atmosphere having between about 3.5% oxygen and about 7.5% oxygen; (b) contacting the primitive hematopoietic cell population with a proliferation agent, the proliferation agent comprising one or more growth factors, one or more cytokines, or combinations thereof; (c) contacting the primitive hematopoietic cell population with a reagent capable of reacting with ATP and generating luminescence in the presence of ATP; and (d) detecting luminescence generated by the reagent that reacted with the ATP in the primitive hematopoietic cell population, the level of luminescence indicating the amount of ATP in the primitive hematopoietic cell population, wherein the amount of ATP indicates the proliferative status of the primitive hematopoietic cells.