HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

From Cell Biology to Tissue Engineering

 

Review

Microenvironmental factors that regulate mesenchymal stem cells: lessons learned from the study of heterotopic ossification

Chen Kan1*, Lijun Chen1*, Yangyang Hu1*, Haimei Lu1, Yuyun Li2, John A Kessler3 and Lixin Kan1,2,3

1School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 2Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, China and 3Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
*Equal first authors

Offprint requests to: Dr. Lixin Kan, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China. e-mail: l-kan@northwestern.edu


Summary. Bone marrow contains a non-hematopoietic, clonogenic, multipotent population of stromal cells that are later called mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Similar cells that share many common features with MSC are also found in other organs, which are thought to contribute both to normal tissue regeneration and to pathological processes such as heterotopic ossification (HO), the formation of ectopic bone in soft tissue. Understanding the microenvironmental factors that regulate MSC in vivo is essential both for understanding the biology of the stem cells and for effective translational applications of MSC. Unfortunately, this important aspect has been largely underappreciated. This review tries to raise the attention and highlight this critical issue by updating the relevant literature along with discussions of the key issues in the area. Histol Histopathol 32, 977-985 (2017)

Key words: Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC), Microenvironmental Factors, Heterotopic ossification (HO), Tissue regeneration

DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-890