Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are defined as a self-renewing population of adherent multipotent progenitor cells with the capacity to differentiate into several mesenchymal cell lineages including bone, cartilage and adipose tissue. Recently, mesenchymal stem cells have become cells of increased interest due to their use in potential allogenic stem cell therapies.
They are majorly isolated from bone marrow. However, cells which display characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells are also found in adipose tissue, peripheral blood, cord blood, skin, cartilage, synovial fluid, bone, tendons, muscle, salivary gland, dental tissues, fetal membrane, endometrium, Wharton’s jelly and sub-amniotic umbilical cord lining membrane.3
Mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into cells derived from all three lineages, such as:
Human mesenchymal stem cells are isolated based on their tissue origin. Majorly, two methods are being used:
International Society of Cellular therapy has listed specific characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells, which are:6
Optimized and high quality MSC expansion media are available including Human Mesenchymal-LS Expansion Medium, Human Mesenchymal-XF Expansion and cGMP compliant Stemline® Mesenchymal Stem Cell Expansion Medium.
In addition PLTMax® Human Platelet Lysate is a growth factor rich human derived media supplement that is a superior alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS) for human mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) culture.
OsteoMAX-XF™ is a specially formulated xeno-free media to readily differentiate human mesenchymal stem cells into osteocytes. OsteoMAX-XF was based on patented, bead-based combinatorial technology, that produces mature osteocytes expressing bone-specific and mineralization markers in as little as 7-10 days.
No, still they are in clinical trials. The multi-lineage potential and homing ability of MSC offers therapeutic strategies to treat skeletal and neurodegenerative diseases. Considering the secretion of anti-inflammatory molecules and immunoregulatory effects, MSCs are also promising to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Mesenchymal stem cells avoid immune response by:
Figure 1. The multi-lineage differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells. MSC cultures have the multi-lineage capacity to differentiate towards a variety of cell types. Given the ability of MSCs to give rise to a number of cell types, these cells are highly attractive models for investigation, especially in regenerative medicine applications.
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