[Mesenchymal stem cells exist in the compact bones from four species of mammals].
The biological properties of cultured mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been intensively investigated, while there is still a paucity of information about the definite in vivo sites that harbor these stem cells due to the lack of specific surface markers. Previous data have demonstrated that human and murine MSC can be isolated from the compact bones. To investigate if it is the case for other species, the femurs from Wistar rats, Beagles, C57 mice and New Zealand rabbits were collected, minced and digested with collagenase type I. The digested bone fragments were seeded into the medium for human bone marrow culture after removal of the suspended cells in the digestion. The results showed that the fibroblast-like cells were observed to migrate from the bone fragments after several days of culture, and they gradually formed an adherent confluent layer. The adherent cells could be passaged and expressed homogenously the mesenchymal cell marker vimentin. Differentiation assays showed that these cells had the capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts and adipocytes. In conclusion, the results here provide new information for the further investigations on the in vivo biological features of MSC in the context of the simplicity of the compact bone structure.
The Second Department of Geriatric Cardiology, PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
Su-Yan
SY
Bian
Zi-Kuan
ZK
Guo
Ping
P
Ye
Li
L
Sheng
Tie-Hui
TH
Xiao
Li-Ping
LP
Qi
D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000166:cytology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004285:Dogs; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar