Research Article Effects of Severe Hypoxia on Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiation Potential

Copyright © 2013 Claudia Cicione et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. The interests in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their application in cell therapy have resulted in a better understanding of the basic biology of these cells. Recently hypoxia has been indicated as crucial for complete chondrogenesis. We aimed at analyzing bonemarrowMSCs (BM-MSCs) differentiation capacity under normoxic and severe hypoxic culture conditions. Methods. MSCs were characterized by flow cytometry and differentiated towards adipocytes, osteoblasts, and chondrocytes under normoxic or severe hypoxic conditions. The differentiations were confirmed comparing each treated point with a control point made of cells grown in DMEM and fetal bovine serum (FBS). Results. BM-MSCs from the donors displayed only few phenotypical differences in surface antigens expressions. Analyzing marker genes expression levels of the treated cells compared to their contro