B1: Conditional immortalization to explore the multipotency of mesenchymal stem cells

Project leader: Dr. K. Anastassiadis

To characterize mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) more completely, we applied a strategy for conditional immortalization using tetracycline-inducible SV40 Large T Antigen to cultivate and clone bone marrow MSCs. We found different classes of clones that are stable and show distinct differentiation properties (tripotential; osteogenic, adipogenic and chrondrogenic, or only bi- or monopotential). Our aims are a) to analyse the gene expression and cell surface proteomic profile of these multipotent and restricted clones and compare to MSCs from other sources. b) Search for the developmental origin of MSCs by combining lineage tracing and conditional immortalization strategies.