Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a heterogeneous ensemble of progenitors and lineage-committed cells.  The capacity to proliferate and potency to differentiate, which are essential to tissue regeneration, are highly variable among MSC subsets.  The production of efficacious MSC therapies necessitates an understanding of the proliferation-potency relationship.  To this end, the present study utilizes a novel high-capacity clonal assay to resolve the proliferation-potency relationship among MSC clones of different potencies.  Clones isolated from early passage MSCs have a broad range of proliferation potentials.  As multipotent MSCs progress through a complex hierarchy of lineage commitment, proliferation potential correlates to overall potency, but it is independent of the specific pathway of commitment.  The gradient in this correlation is pronounced with highly clonogenic, multipotent cells at one extreme and senescent, lineage-committed cells at the other.  These findings are discussed in the context of the preparation of MSC therapies.  Funding: NIH (R03EB007281).

Analysis of the proliferation-potency relationship in heterogeneous cultures of mesenchymal stem cells with a high-capacity clonal assay

245th National Meeting (2013)

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