Isolation, characterization and functional activity of human marrow stromal progenitors in hemopoiesis

In conclusion, monoclonal antibody STRO-1 has proven to be an extremely valuable reagent for the identification, isolation and functional characterization of human bone marrow stromal cell precursors. We were able to isolate CFU-F free of contaminating hemopoietic progenitors and are beginning to construct a detailed picture of their cell surface phenotype and have developed assays to examine the conditions required for their growth and differentiation. In the future, we hope to determine whether multipotential stromal stem cells exist in human bone marrow and to establish culture conditions that selectively promote self-renewal or development along any of a number of stromal cell lineages. Such cells would be an ideal target for gene therapy and may provide a means of treating disorders of the hemopoietic system with a suspected stromal etiology, such as aplastic anemia. We have recently succeeded in generating bone cells from STRO-1+ marrow cells (Gronthos et al, in preparation) and thus marrow stromal cell precursors may also find application in the treatment of other disorders such as those of the osteogenic system. For the present, these must remain tantalizing possibilities.