[Osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in patients with aplastic...

To investigate the osteogenic and adipogenic difference of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) between patients with aplastic anemia (AA) and healthy volunteers and to explore the role of MSCs adipo-differentiation in the pathogenetic mechanism of AA.

MSCs were isolated from bone marrow of patients with AA and healthy donors and expanded in vitro. MSCs derived from the AA patients and healthy volunteers were compared with respect to morphology, in vitro proliferation capacity, phenotype, differentiation ability and gene expression during differentiation.

The MSCs clones in the AA patients were (19.30 +/- 4.77)/(5 x 10(5) MNCs)7 days after culture, being significantly lower than those in the healthy volunteers, which was (47.72 +/- 3.46)/(5 x 10(5) MSCs) (P < 0.05). Compared with those the healthy donors, MSCs from the AA patients had similar proliferative capacity in the first 8 passages and then decreased in the following passages. MSCs from different sources had the same phenotype. MSCs from the AA patients could differentiate more easily into adipocytes but less easily and slower into osteoblasts than those from the healthy volunteers.

The increased adipogenic capacity and decreased osteogenic capacity of MSCs in AA patients may contribute to the development and progress of AA.