Bone Marrow Stromal Stem Cells for Bone Repair: Basic and Translational Aspects

Abstract

Human skeletal stem cells (also known as bone marrow-derived stromal cells, hBMSCs) are adult clonogenic cells located in a perivascular niche in the bone marrow. hBMSCs are capable of multilineage differentiation into various mesoderm-cell types including bone forming osteoblastic cells. A number of stromal stem cells (MSCs) have also been isolated from the stroma of different tissues and share some characteristics with BMSCs. Due to their ease of isolation and multi-linage differentiation potential, hBMSCs are being introduced into clinical medicine for treatment of a variety of degenerative diseases. In this chapter, we discuss the bone regenerative capacity of BMSCs as relevant to their use in regenerating skeletal tissues.