STEMCELL TECHNOLOGIES INC.’S QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IS CERTIFIED TO ISO 13485. PRODUCTS ARE
FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY AND NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN OR ANIMAL DIAGNOSTIC OR THERAPEUTIC USES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.
TOLL-FREE PHONE 1 800 667 0322 PHONE +1 604 877 0713 VERSION 01
2
2.0 Introduction
STEMvision™ is an automated instrument and computer system that is designed specifically for imaging,
classifying, and counting hematopoietic colonies produced by human or mouse progenitor cells in the colony-
forming unit (CFU) assay. For human assays, STEMvision™ separately counts colonies derived from
erythroid progenitor cells (colony-forming units-erythroid [CFU-E] and burst-forming units-erythroid [BFU-E]),
uni- or bi-potent myeloid progenitor cells (colony-forming units granulocyte [CFU-G], colony-forming units
macrophage [CFU-M], and colony-forming units granulocyte-macrophage [CFU-GM]), or multi-potent
progenitor cells (colony-forming units granulocyte, erythrocyte, macrophage, megakaryocyte [CFU-GEMM])
that develop in conventional 14-day CFU assays of bone marrow (BM), mobilized peripheral blood (MPB), or
umbilical cord blood (CB) cells. STEMvision™ can also count the total number of colonies in a faster 7-day
CFU assay of CB cells that has been developed for CB banks. A summary of human STEMvision™ Analysis
Packages used for different human CFU assays is described in Table 1. For mouse assays, STEMvision™
can count the total number of colonies in CFU assays (ranging from 7 - 14 days) or colonies derived from
erythroid or myeloid progenitor cells in lineage-specific media. A summary of mouse STEMvision™ Analysis
Packages is described in Table 2.
STEMvision™ is designed for use with MethoCult™ media (see Table 1 and Table 2 for the appropriate
MethoCult™ formulation for different STEMvision™ CFU assays) and meniscus-reducing SmartDish™
cultureware (Catalog #27370). STEMvision™ is optimized for analysis of CFU assays that do not contain
background red blood cells (RBCs). RBCs must be cleared from fresh human bone marrow and mobilized
peripheral blood samples using HetaSep™ (Catalog #07906) or from human cord blood with HetaSep™ or
ErythroClear™ (Catalog #01739) before setting up the CFU assay. For complete instructions on how to set up
CFU assays, refer to the Technical Manual: Human Colony-Forming Unit (CFU) Assays Using MethoCult™
(Document #28404) or the Technical Manual: Mouse Colony-Forming Unit (CFU) Assays Using MethoCult™
(Document #28405) available at www.stemcell.com or contact us to request a copy.
STEMvision™ eliminates the inter- and intra-individual and laboratory variation associated with manual colony
scoring by using sophisticated image acquisition and analysis software to identify and classify hematopoietic
colonies. The morphological criteria for classifying the different sub-types of CFUs are applied consistently,
facilitating standardization of the CFU assay and ensuring accurate, reproducible results. Each 35 mm culture
is imaged in approximately 30 - 45 seconds and an entire SmartDish™ 6-well plate is imaged in
approximately 3 minutes. Analysis can be completed offline in about 6 minutes per plate for human assays or
3 minutes per plate for mouse assays. For high throughput processing, 20 plates containing 120 cultures can
be imaged in about 80 minutes, with the image analysis executed overnight. Digital images of the entire
culture can be permanently archived for future reference.
For human assays, the results of 7-day and 14-day CFU assays produced by STEMvision™ can be printed in
two different report formats. A “Lab” format report contains detailed information on the CFU assay for the
laboratory or transplant physician. A second “Parent” report form is suitable for presentation of the CFU assay
results to parents banking their child’s CB with a private bank for potential future autologous use.
In the following sections, each of these aspects of using STEMvision™ will be described in detail.
Prior to using STEMvision™, please ensure that you have read section 1.0: Safety Information and Warnings.
