Cord blood--an alternative source for bone regeneration

Bone regeneration is one of the best investigated pathways in mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) biology. Therefore strong efforts have been made to introduce tissue engineering and cell therapeutics as an alternative treatment option for patients with bone defects. This review of the literature gives an overview of MSC biology aiming for clinical application including advantages but also specific challenges and problems which are associated with cord blood derived stromal cell (CB-MSC) as a source for bone regeneration. The use of postnatal CB-MSC is ethically uncomplicated and requires no invasive harvesting procedure. Moreover, most data document a high osteogenic potential of CB-MCS and also low immunoreactivity compared with other MSC types. The expression profile of CB-MSC during osteogenic differentiation shows similarities to that of other MSC types. Within the umbilical cord different MSC types have been characterized which are potent to differentiate into osteoblasts. In contrast to a large number of in vitro investigations there are only few in vivo studies available so far.