Superiority of synovial membrane mesenchymal stem cells in chondrogenesis, osteogenesis, myogenesis and tenogenesis in a rabbit model.

Engineering complex tissues is perhaps the most ambitious goal of all tissue engineers. Despite significant advances in tissue engineering, which have resulted in successful engineering of simple tissues such as skin and cartilage, there are a number of challenges that remain in engineering of complex, hybrid tissue structures, such as osteochondral tissue. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the capacity to highly proliferate in an undifferentiated state and the potential to differentiate into a variety of different lineages, providing a promising single cell source to produce multiple cell types. MSC obtained from adult human contribute to the regeneration of mesenchymal tissues such as bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, tendon and marrow stroma. In the present study, the regeneration capacity of multipotent MSCs derived from different tissues in the rabbit were compared. Specifically the aim of this study was to isolate and characterize rabbit adult stem cell populations from bone marrow, adipose, synovial membrane, rotator cuff, ligament and tendon and assess their cell morphology, growth rate, cell surface markers and differentiation capacity. MSCs derived from synovial membrane showed superiority in terms of chondrogenesis, osteogenesis, myogenesis and tenogenesis, suggesting that synovial membrane-derived MSCs would be a good candidate for efforts to regenerate musculoskeletal tissues.