INTRODUCTION To date, no single most-appropriate factor or delivery method has been identified for the purpose of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based treatment of cartilage injury. Therefore, in this study we tested whether gene delivery of the growth factor Indian hedgehog (IHH) was able to induce chondrogenesis in human primary MSCs, and whether it was possible by such an approach to modulate t...

Cell-matrix adhesion is one of the important interactions that regulates stem cell survival, self-renewal, and differentiation. Our previous report (Wu SC, Chang JK, Wang CK, Wang GJ, Ho ML. Biomaterials 31: 631-640, 2010) indicated that a microenvironment enriched with hyaluronan (HA) initiated and enhanced chondrogenesis in human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs). We further hypothesize tha...

Patterns of cell division, cell death and chondrogenesis in cultured aggregates of normal and talpid 3 mutant chick limb mesenchyme cells SUMMARY Aggregates were prepared from dissociated mesenchyme cells obtained from normal and talpid 3 mutant chick limb buds at stage 26 and were maintained for 4 days in culture. They were shown by autoradiographic techniques to consist initially of populatio...

Bovine bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) cultured in condensate culture, spontaneous and independent for any external biostimulants, undergo chondrogenic differentiation. In the present study, the bovine MSC chondrogenesis pathway was studied by analyzing stage-specific gene expression using quantitative "Real Time" reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results show...

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are an attractive cell source for tissue engineering, and recently a modified aggregate culture of human ADSCs (hADSCs) was established based on preparation of three-dimensional (3D) cell aggregates in growth factor-enriched low serum medium using the hanging droplet method. Growth and differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) plays a critical role in chondrogenesis and...

The proprotein convertase furin participates in the maturation/bioactivation of a variety of proproteins involved in chondrogenesis events. These include parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP), an autocrine/paracrine factor that is crucial to both normal cartilage development and cartilage-related pathological processes. Despite the known importance of furin activity in the bioactivation o...

Multipotent human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are promising candidates for and cartilage regeneration. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is expressed by hMSCs a both exogenous endogenous danger signals. TLRs have been shown to possess functional differences based on the species (human or mouse) they isolated from therefore, effects of knockdown TLR4 were evaluated in humans dur...

objective adult stem cells which are derived from different tissues, with their unique abilities to self-renew and differentiate into various phenotypes have the potential for cell therapy and tissue engineering. human adipose tissue is an appropriate source of mesenchymal stem cells with wide differentiation potential for tissue engineering research. in this study isolated stem cells from huma...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is an inflammatory joint disease characterized by degeneration of articular cartilage within synovial joints. An estimated 27 million Americans suffer from OA and the population is expected to reach 67 million in USA by 2030. Thus, it is urgent to find an effective OA treatment. Traditional OA treatments have no disease-modifying effect while regenerative OA therapies such a...