Department of Orthopedics, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e26285. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026285. Epub 2011 Oct 18.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from adult tissues are an important candidate for cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine due to their multipotential differentiation capability. MSCs have been identified in many adult tissues but have not reported in the human intervertebral disc cartilage endplate (CEP). The initial purpose of this study was to determine whether MSCs exist in the degenerated human CEP. Next, the morphology, proliferation capacity, cell cycle, cell surface epitope profile and differentiation capacity of these CEP-derived stem cells (CESCs) were compared with bone-marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs). Lastly, whether CESCs are a suitable candidate for BM-MSCs was evaluated. Isolated cells from degenerated human CEP were seeded in an agarose suspension culture system to screen the proliferative cell clusters. Cell clusters were chosen and expanded in vitro and were compared with BM-MSCs derived from the same patient. The morphology, proliferation rate, cell cycle, immunophenotype and stem cell gene expression of the CESCs were similar to BM-MSCs. In addition, the CESCs could be induced into osteoblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes, and are superior to BM-MSCs in terms of osteogenesis and chondrogenesis. This study is first to demonstrate the presence of stem cells in the human degenerated CEP. These results may improve our understanding of intervertebral disc (IVD) pathophysiology and the degeneration process, and could provide cell candidates for cell-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.
间充质干细胞（MSCs）来源于成体组织，由于其多能分化能力，是细胞治疗和再生医学的重要候选细胞。MSCs 已在许多成体组织中被鉴定出来，但在人类椎间盘软骨终板（CEP）中尚未报道。本研究的最初目的是确定 MSCs 是否存在于退变的人类 CEP 中。接下来，比较了这些源自 CEP 的干细胞（CESCs）与骨髓间充质干细胞（BM-MSCs）的形态、增殖能力、细胞周期、细胞表面表型和分化能力。最后，评估了 CESCs 是否是 BM-MSCs 的合适候选细胞。从退变的人类 CEP 中分离出的细胞接种在琼脂糖悬浮培养系统中，以筛选增殖细胞簇。选择细胞簇并在体外进行扩增，并与来自同一患者的 BM-MSCs 进行比较。CESCs 的形态、增殖率、细胞周期、免疫表型和干细胞基因表达与 BM-MSCs 相似。此外，CESCs 可被诱导成成骨细胞、脂肪细胞和成软骨细胞，并且在成骨和软骨形成方面优于 BM-MSCs。本研究首次证明了人类退变 CEP 中存在干细胞。这些结果可能有助于我们更好地理解椎间盘（IVD）的病理生理学和退变过程，并为基于细胞的再生医学和组织工程提供细胞候选物。
