Background Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) hold great promise as a tool in regenerative medicine and cell therapy. Application of hMSC in cell therapy requires the elaboration of an appropriate serum-free (SF), xeno-free (XF) culture system in order to minimize the health risk of using xenogenic compounds, and to limit the immunological reactions in-vivo. Besides the well-known disadvantage...

The ability of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) to differentiate into osteoblasts was examined through the use of osteogenic induction medium (MSCOIM) cultures. hMSC first attached to the dish surface and exhibited fibroblast-like spindle shapes, and after proliferation, formed cuboidal shapes. Calcium assays and the use of von Kossa and alizarin red S staining showed that hMSC were capable ...

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) can home to tumor sites and promote tumor growth. The effects of hMSC on tumor growth are controversial and involvement of hMSC in tumor immunology has not been adequately addressed. Therefore, we investigated whether injection of hMSC affects tumor appearance, growth and metastasis, and anti-tumor immunity in an experimental animal model of metastatic breast...

OBJECTIVE This study investigated a novel approach to induce chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). We hypothesized that a structured three-dimensional co-culture using hMSC and chondrocytes would provide chondroinductive cues to hMSC without inducing hypertrophy. METHOD In an effort to promote optimal chondrogenic differentiation of hMSC, we created bilaminar ce...

BACKGROUND The use of bone marrow-derived human multipotent stromal cells (hMSC) in cell-based therapies has dramatically increased in recent years, as researchers have exploited the ability of these cells to migrate to sites of tissue injury, inflammation, and tumors. Our group established that hMSC respond to "danger" signals--by-products of damaged, infected or inflamed tissues--via activati...

Interactions of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) with tumors are controversially discussed since there is evidence for both tumor progression as well as tumor inhibition by hMSC. The objective of the present study is to investigate whether hMSC support cell motility and cytokine secretion in a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cell line (HLaC 78). A spheroid model was generated in which ...

Human adult mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) are particularly suitable cells for autologous tissue engineering and cell-based therapies. They can be isolated from various tissues, such as bone marrow, adipose tissue, dental pulp or umbilical cords. Due to their primitive developmental stage, umbilical cord-derived hMSC are assumed to have a higher proliferation and differentiation capacity than hM...

Background and Objectives: Although human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) transplantation has been known to improve ventricular function, the potential proarrhythmic effects have not yet been studied. Materials and Methods: We monitored the heart rhythm of 6 dogs for 4 weeks after transplantation of hMSC (1×10, epicardial injection) (hMSC group) and in 5 Sham dogs after the injection of the vehicl...

Human bone marrow-derived stromal (skeletal) stem cells (BM-hMSC) are being employed in an increasing number of clinical trials for tissue regeneration. A limiting factor for their clinical use is the inability to obtain sufficient cell numbers. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) can provide an unlimited source of clinical grade cells for therapy. We have generated MSC-like cells from hESC (call...

Current strategies for tissue engineering of bone rely on the implantation of scaffolds, colonized with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC), into a recipient. A major limitation is the lack of blood vessels. One approach to enhance the scaffold vascularisation is to supply the scaffolds with endothelial cells (EC).The main goal of this study was to establish a coculture system of hMSC and EC fo...