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Published on: April 2, 2008
Labeling of mesenchymal stem cells by bioconjugated quantum dots
Bhranti S Shah1, Paul A Clark, Eduardo K Moioli
1College of Dental Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
Abstract:
Long-term labeling of stem cells during self-replication and differentiation benefits investigations of development and tissue regeneration. We report the labeling of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) with RGD-conjugated quantum dots (QDs) during self-replication, and multilineage differentiations into osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic cells. QD-labeled hMSCs remained viable as unlabeled hMSCs from the same subpopulation. These findings suggest the use of bioconjugated QDs as an effective probe for long-term labeling of stem cells.

