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Updated: May 15, 2026
Combining Intravital Fluorescent Microscopy (IVFM) with Genetic Models to Study Engraftment Dynamics of Hematopoietic Cells to Bone Marrow Niches
Published on: March 21, 2017
The role of bone marrow-derived cells during the bone healing process in the GFP mouse bone marrow transplantation
Hidetsugu Tsujigiwa1, Yasuhisa Hirata, Naoki Katase
1Department of Oral Pathology and Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8525, Japan. tsuji@md.okayama-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
Bone healing is a complex and multistep process in which the origin of the cells participating in bone repair is still unknown. The involvement of bone marrow-derived cells in tissue repair has been the subject of recent studies. In the present study, bone marrow-derived cells in bone healing were traced using the GFP bone marrow transplantation model. Bone marrow cells from C57BL/6-Tg (CAG-EGFP) were transplanted into C57BL/6 J wild mice. After transplantation, bone injury was created using a 1.0-mm drill. Bone healing was histologically assessed at 3, 7, 14, and 28 postoperative days. Immunohistochemistry for GFP; double-fluorescent immunohistochemistry for GFP-F4/80, GFP-CD34, and GFP-osteocalcin; and double-staining for GFP and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase were performed. Bone marrow transplantation successfully replaced the hematopoietic cells into GFP-positive donor cells. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that osteoblasts or osteocytes in the repair stage were GFP-negative, whereas osteoclasts in the repair and remodeling stages and hematopoietic cells were GFP-positive. The results indicated that bone marrow-derived cells might not differentiate into osteoblasts. The role of bone marrow-derived cells might be limited to adjustment of the microenvironment by differentiating into inflammatory cells, osteoclasts, or endothelial cells in immature blood vessels.
