Backgrounds: We have studied tissue engineering using both adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and bone marrow-derived stem cells (BSCs), and previously demonstrated that these stem cells differentiate into a variety of cell lineages both in vitro and in vivo.

Purposes: In this study, we investigated the biological differences between ASCs and BSCs harvested from mice. We studied the differences from the viewpoint of 1. morphology, 2. cell surface antigens, 3. proliferation potency, 4. pluripotency, and 5. gene transfer efficiency.

Methods: ASCs and BSCs were isolated from 5-week-old C57BL/6 mice. After subculture in a control medium, the cell surface markers expressed on the ASCs and BSCs were studied by flow cytometry. The cells were also incubated in osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic media and differentiation was assessed by electron microscopy, special staining and RT-PCR. Gene transfer efficiency was studied using adenoviral, lentiviral, retroviral, adeno-associated viral (AAV) type 1, type 2, and type 5 vectors.

Results: BSCs were generally much more anaplastic than ASCs. However, ASCs and BSCs had generally similar properties as targets of viral vector mediated gene transfer, except that ASCs were particularly sensitive to lentiviral and oncoretroviral mediated gene transfer. The proliferation potency of ASCs was better than that of BSCs, but pluripotency and cell surface antigens were similar.

Conclusions: ASCs can be easily harvested and proliferated; ASCs may be better than BSCs for further experiments on stem cell biology and tissue engineering.

Topics:
adipose tissue, bone marrow, flow cytometry, gene transfer techniques, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, stem cells, surface antigens, mice, adenoviruses, mice, inbred c57bl

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2005, The American Society of Hematology
2005
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