Mesenchymal Stem Cell Content of Human Vertebral Bone Marrow

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Abstract
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are capable of down-regulating alloimmune responses and promoting the engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells. MSCs may therefore be suitable for improving donor-specific tolerance induction in solid-organ transplantation. Cells from cadaveric vertebral bone marrow (V-BM), aspirated iliac crest-BM, and peripheral blood progenitor cells were compared. Cells were characterized by flow cytometry and colony assays. MSCs generated from V-BM were assayed for differentiation capacity and immunomodulatory function. A median 5.7×108 nucleated cells (NCs) were recovered per vertebral body. The mesenchymal progenitor, colony-forming unit-fibroblast, frequency in V-BM (11.6/105 NC, range: 6.0–20.0) was considerably higher than in iliac crest-BM (1.4/105 NC, range: 0.4–2.6) and peripheral blood progenitor cells (not detectable). MSC generated from V-BM had the typical MSC phenotype (CD105posCD73posCD45negCD34neg), displayed multilineage differentiation potential, and suppressed alloreactivity in mixed lymphocyte reactions. V-BM may be an excellent source for MSC cotransplantation approaches.