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WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) – A study published Thursday in the journal Cell showed that human skeletal stem cells that become bone, cartilage or stromal cells have been isolated from the bones of the fetus and adults.
According to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, this is the first time that skeletal stem cells, seen in rodent models, have been identified in humans.
The researchers were able to derive skeletal stem cells from human-induced pluripotent stem cells, opening up new therapeutic possibilities.
"Identifying this human skeletal stem cell and elucidating its lineage map will enable molecular diagnosis and treatment of skeletal diseases," said Michael Longaker, senior author of the study at Stanford University.
The bones of mice and humans can recover from small to moderate defects, but adult cartilage tissue has little or no regenerative capacity. Also, mice and humans exhibit severe degeneration of age-related skeletal tissue over time.
In the new study, Longaker et al. Found that these self-renewing and multipotent cells were present in fetal and adult human bone marrow tissues and could be derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
IPSCs are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult cells. Pluripotent stem cells can spread indefinitely and give rise to all other types of cells in the body.
By defining the relationships between human skeletal stem cells and downstream skeletal progenitors, the researchers also created a detailed map of lineage-mediated skeletal stem cell-mediated formation in humans.
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