Human reserve pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells are present in the connective tissues of skeletal muscle and dermis derived from fetal, adult, and geriatric donors

This study details the profile of 13 cell surface cluster differentiation m arkers on human reserve stem cells derived fi-om connective tissues. Stem c ells were isolated from the connective tissues of dermis and skeletal muscl e derived from fetal, mature, and geriatric humans. An insulin/dexamethason e phenotypic bioassay was used to determine the identity of the stem cells from each population. All populations contained lineage-committed myogenic, adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic progenitor stem cells as well as lineage-uncommitted pluripotent stem cells capable of forming muscle, adipo cytes, cartilage, bone, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. Flow cytometric analysis of adult stem cell populations revealed positive staining for CD3 4 and CD90 and negative staining for CD3, CD4, CD8, CD11c, CD33, CD36, CD38 , CD45, CD117, Glycophorin-A, and HLA DR-II. Anat Rec 264:51-62,2001. (C) 2 001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.