Mesenchymal stem cells derived from vertebrae (vMSCs) show best biological properties

Purpose Due to their properties and characteristics human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) appear to have great therapeutic potential. Many different populations of MSCs have been described and to understand whether they have equivalent biological properties is a critical issue for their therapeutic application. Methods We proposed to analyze the in vitro growth kinetics of MSCs derived from different body sites (iliac crest bone marrow, vertebrae bone marrow, colon mucosa, dental pulp). Results Mesenchymal stem cells derived from vertebrae can be maintained in culture for a greater number of steps and they also generate mature cells of all mesenchymal lineages with greater efficiency, when induced into osteogenic, adipogenic and chondrogenic differentiation. Conclusions The ability of vertebrae-derived MSCs in terms of expansion and differentiation is very interesting at the light of a clinical application for bone fusion in spine surgery. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.