Primary mesenchymal stem and progenitor cells from bone marrow lack expression of CD44 protein.

ABSTRACT: Despite significant progress in our understanding of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) biology during recent years, much of the information is based on experiments using in vitro culture-selected stromal progenitor cells. Therefore, the natural cellular identity of MSCs remains poorly defined. Numerous studies have reported that CD44 expression is one of the characteristics of MSCs in both humans and mice; however, we here have prospectively isolated bone marrow stromal cell subsets from both human and mouse bone marrow by flow cytometry and characterized them by gene expression analysis and function assays. Our data provide functional and molecular evidence suggesting that primary mesenchymal stem and progenitor cells of bone marrow reside in the CD44(-) cell fraction in both mice and humans. T

SUBMITTER: Qian H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3406666 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature