Fibroblast growth factor-2 primes human mesenchymal stem cells for enhanced chondrogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are multipotent cells capable of differentiating into a variety of mature cell types, including osteoblasts, adipocytes and chondrocytes. It has previously been shown that, when expanded in medium supplemented with fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), hMSCs show enhanced chondrogenesis (CG). Previous work concluded that the enhancement of CG could be attributed to the selection of a cell subpopulation with inherent chondrogenic potential. In this study, we show that FGF-2 pretreatment actually primed hMSCs to undergo enhanced CG by increasing basal Sox9 protein levels. Our results show that Sox9 protein levels were elevated within 30 minutes of exposure to FGF-2 and progressively increased with longer exposures. Further, we show using flow cytometry that

SUBMITTER: Handorf AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3144950 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature