Identification and behavior analysis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Stem cells are defined as having both self-renewal and multilineage differentiation capacity. Based on this definition, the existence of mesenchymal stem cells （MSCs） in bone marrow （BM） has been well documented. However, the in vivo dynamics of MSCs in intact BM conditions remain unclear because most experiments have used in vitro culture systems or transplantation assays. Recent studies using genetic mouse models revealed that perivascular stromal cells function as BM-MSCs. Furthermore, mouse genetic approaches made it possible to perform lineage tracing analyses of BM-MSCs in vivo to investigate the underlying mechanisms that regulate cell fate. Here, we reviewed recent information about identification and differentiation mechanisms of BM-MSCs in vivo.