Anti-apoptotic increases megakaryocyte proplatelet formation in cultures of human cord blood.

Apoptosis is a recognized limitation to generating large numbers of megakaryocytes in culture. The genes responsible have been rigorously studied in mice, but are poorly characterized in human culture systems. As CD34-positive () cells isolated from human umbilical vein cord blood were differentiated into megakaryocytes in culture, two distinct cell populations were identified by flow cytometric forward and side scatter: larger size, lower granularity (LLG), and smaller size, higher granularity (SHG).