Generation of human pluripotent stem cell lines (iPSCs) from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from three elderly patients with osteoarthritis.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a unique population of adult stem cells that can differentiate into many cell types. As such, MSCs represent an interesting source of stem cells for use in the clinical treatment of a variety of disorders involving tissue regeneration. It is therefore crucial to investigate further, whether MSCs from patients with bone or cartilage diseases are able to provide iPSCs lines with efficient differentiation ability into MSC derivatives. For this purpose, we derived 3 stable iPSC lines from the MSCs of 3 elderly patients with osteoarthritis (OA) able to re-differentiate into MSC to make bone, cartilage and adipose tissue.

Tissue engineering through autologous mesenchymal stem cells.

The regeneration of damaged cartilage in different pathological situations is a major goal for the future and could be achieved through cell and/or gene therapy. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are the progenitors of multiple lineages, including bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, and astrocytes. MSCs seem to be the best candidates for cell therapy to regenerate injured tissue, as they are easily isolated from bone marrow and can be rapidly amplified. Full healing is extremely demanding, however, and includes integration of the regenerated tissue within the surrounding host tissue and true differentiation through pathways involved in embryonic development. This goal might be reached through the combined use of scaffolds, MSC-mediated therapy and the expression of selective differentiating factors. The long-term behavior of MSCs associated with biomaterials and implanted in pathological joints remains to be investigated before clinical application in osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.