The majority of studies on human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSCs) have been performed using bone marrow obtained from the iliac crests of healthy donors. If hBMSCs could be isolated from bone marrow aspirated at sites exposed during operation, and t...
The majority of studies on human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSCs) have been performed using bone marrow obtained from the iliac crests of healthy donors. If hBMSCs could be isolated from bone marrow aspirated at sites exposed during operation, and these hBMSCs had an osteogenic potential comparable with those obtained from the iliac crest, hBMSCs acquisition could be simplified and donor site morbidity could be obviated. To compare the isolation yields and the osteogenic potentials of hBMSCs obtained from different sites in same donors, fresh bone marrow was obtained from the iliac crests and greater trochanters of 36 donors undergoing total hip arthroplasty. During the isolation procedure and initial culture, the numbers of nucleated cells, colony forming unit-fibroblasts (CFU-Fs), alkaline phosphatase (ALP)-positive CFU-Fs, and total numbers of hBMSCs harvested at day 20 after seeding were measured. Osteogenic differentiation potentials were investigated by measuring ALP activity and calcium content in osteogenic medium. The isolation yield of hBMSCs, their populations in nucleated cells, and ALP-positive populations were significantly lower for bone marrow aspirated from the greater trochanter. However, no significant difference was observed in the osteogenic differentiation potentials of hBMSCs obtained from the two aspiration sites. These results suggest that although the absolute number of hBMSCs in greater trochanter derived marrow is smaller than that in marrow obtained from the iliac crest, that hBMSCs obtained from these sites have similar osteogenic potentials. These findings indicate that the greater trochanter can be used as an alternative site for harvesting hBMSCs.