Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are capable of differentiating into multiple cell lineages including endothelial cells. Simvastatin, an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor that is used as a cholesterol-lowering agent, promotes endothelial differentiation from epithelial progenitor cells (EPC). The Notch signaling pathway, which plays a key role in multiple cell functions such as differentiation, prol...

Transplantation of bone marrow derived stem cells (BMSCs) has been reported inhibits liver fibrosis. Several in vitro studies by co-culturing BMSCs and hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) indirectly or directly in 2D models showed inhibition of HSC as the key player in liver fibrosis. In this study, we investigated direct effect of BMSCs on HSCs by co-culturing BMSCs and HSCs in 3D model as it repres...

OBJECTIVE This study is to investigate the effects of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) transplantation on acute liver failure (ALF). METHODS BMSCs were separated from rat bone marrow, cultured, and identified by flow cytometry. Rat model with ALF was established by injecting D-galactosamine and lipopolysaccharide. Rats were randomly divided into the control group and BMSC transplantat...

CXC chemokines are essential for osteogenic differentiation of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) for use in bone tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in clinical settings. However, an accurate understanding of the underlying mechanisms is still needed. In this study, we analyzed the effects of CXC chemokine ligand-13 (CXCL13) on osteogenic differentiation of rat BMSCs and initiated a ...

The imbalance between adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). Several microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in regulating adipogenesis and osteogenesis. In this study, we established a steroid-induced ONFH rat model to identify the potential relevan...

Bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are able to differentiate into multi types of lineages, so they have been widely applied in the stem cell transplantation. The BMSCs are usually needed to be expanded before transplantation due to their limited content in bone marrow. It has recently been reported that Icariin (ICA), a major constituent of flavonoids from the Chinese medical herb Epimedium br...

Therapy using acellular spinal cord (ASC) scaffolds seeded with bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) has previously been shown to restore function of the damaged spinal cord and improve functional recovery in a rat model of acute hemisected spinal cord injury (SCI). The aim of the present study was to determine whether BMSCs and ASC scaffolds promote the functional recovery of the damaged spinal c...

The natural pure compound obtusilactone A (OA) was identified in Cinnamomum kotoense Kanehira & Sasaki, and shows effective anti-cancer activity. We studied the effect of OA on osteogenesis of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). OA possesses biocompatibility, stimulates Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) activity and facilitates mineralization of BMSCs. Expression of osteogenesis ma...

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have been shown to be able to migrate towards glioma, but the molecular mechanisms responsible for this migratory behavior still require further elucidation. This study aimed to test the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the C6 glioma-induced migration of BMSCs, evaluate the effect of VEGF on the migratory capacity and vascul...

BACKGROUND Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have the potential to differentiate into various cells and can transdifferentiate into myocytes if an appropriate cellular environment is provided. However, the molecular signals that underlie this process are not fully understood. In this study, we show that BMSC differentiation is dependent on communication with cells in their microenvironment. M...