Orthopedics & Rheumatology

Biography

Biography: Rui Shi

Abstract

The potential of stem cell niches (SCNs) in the inter-vertebral disc (IVD) region, which may be of great significance in the regeneration process, was recently proposed. To the best of our knowledge, no previous in vitro study has examined the characteristics of stem cells derived from the potential SCN of IVD (ISN). Therefore, increasing knowledge on ISN-derived stem cells (ISN-SCs) may provide a greater understanding of IVD degeneration and regeneration processes. We aimed to demonstrate the existence of ISN-SCs and to investigate their characteristics in vitro. Sprague-Dawley rats (male, 4-weeks-old) were used in this study. ISN tissues were separated by ophthalmic surgical instruments under a dissecting microscope according to the anatomical areas. Cells isolated from the ISN tissues were cultured and expanded in vitro. Passage 4 (P4) populations were used for further analysis with respect to colony-forming ability, cellular immune phenotype, cell cycle, stem cell-related gene expression, and proliferation and multi-potential differentiation capacities. In general, the ISN-SCs met the minimal criteria for the definition of multi-potent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), including adherence to plastic, specific surface antigen expression and multi-potent differentiation potential. The ISN-SCs also expressed stem cell-related genes that were comparable to those of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), and had colony-forming and self-renewal abilities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first in vitro study aimed towards determining the existence and characteristics of ISN-SCs, which belong to the MSC family according to our data. This finding may be of great significance for additional studies that investigate the migration of ISN-SCs into the IVD, and may provide a new perspective on different biological approaches for IVD self-regeneration.