Differences in surface antigen expression of human fibroblasts cultured from bone marrow compared with those obtained...

We have described the optimal conditions for the culture of human fibroblast cells from whole bone marrow aspirates and have shown that these fibroblasts differ in surface markers from those obtained from the skin and embryo lung tissue. All three fibroblast types express HLA class 1 antigens, together with an antigen found on T cells, granulocytes, white matter of brain and breast epithelial cells, but none of them expressed HLA class 2 antigens. In addition, skin fibroblasts expressed an antigen found on common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells, while bone marrow fibroblasts expressed an antigen found on human natural killer cells. Hence, all three types of fibroblasts can be separated on the basis of their surface markers, thereby suggesting a difference in maturation pathways.