Cell populations with stem phenotypes exhibited enhanced agar-colony formation.

<p>Agar colonies were obtained by culture of sorted cells from mouse mammary carcinoma Cl66 cells cultured in soft-agar containing complete DMEM media. Stem-type cells formed higher numbers of agar colonies than non-stem type cells. ALDH1⁺ and ALDH1⁻ formed more agar colonies than SP cells and SP cells formed more agar colonies than non-SP cells. Soft agar colony formation was much lower in CD34^high and CD49f^high cell populations. Matrigel™ increased the size of agar colonies of all cell populations, indicating that all cell populations responded to the growth factors present in Matrigel™. With Matrigel™ indicated by +M. All data presented are the average of 2 independent experiments.