Transcriptome Analysis During Normal Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Differentiation

Abstract

This chapter provides a review of recent advances in understanding the importance of normal mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation and the key regulators that orchestrate their fate into several cell types. Human bone marrow and umbilical cord veins are sources that achieve enough quantities of MSCs, which differentiate in vitro into osteoblasts following expansion and proper biochemical stimuli. Moreover, these cells feature fast proliferation rate and have great expan-sion capability. Consequently, MSCs have potential uses for clinical trials as for example in healing bone defects. However, understanding their basic processes, including the modulation of gene expression during its early differentiation, is still focus of intense investigation. Additionally, we show results suggesting that regard-less the anatomical site from which stem cells are obtained, a shared set of genes is activated to trigger osteoblast differentiation.