MethoCult GF H4034 Starter Kit

A complete methylcellulose-based colony-forming unit (CFU) assay system from STEMCELL Technologies, the MethoCult GF H4034 Starter Kit supports the growth and enumeration of human hematopoietic progenitor cells in cell culture workflows. The pre-formulated H4034 medium contains a defined cocktail of recombinant human cytokines including stem cell factor, GM-CSF, G-CSF, IL-3, IL-6, and erythropoietin, allowing simultaneous development of erythroid (BFU-E), granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM), and multipotential (CFU-GEMM) colonies from bone marrow, peripheral blood, cord blood, or mobilized peripheral blood mononuclear cell sources.

The starter kit bundles 100 mL of methylcellulose medium with Iscove's Modified Dulbecco's Medium (IMDM), bovine serum albumin solution, and supplementary reagents required to set up in vitro assays. Researchers typically plate cells in 35 mm culture dishes at 1.1 mL per dish and score colonies after 14 to 16 days of incubation at 37 °C in a humidified 5% CO2 atmosphere. Single-use vials of methylcellulose should be stored frozen at -20 °C and thawed immediately before use to preserve cytokine activity.

Typical research applications include studies of normal and leukemic hematopoiesis, characterization of progenitor populations, evaluation of cytotoxic or proliferative compounds, and validation of cell therapy starting materials. The defined, serum-compatible formulation reduces batch-to-batch variability and supports reproducible colony enumeration in research use only workflows.