Human bone marrow stromal cell precursors: Identification and developmental potential

In conclusion, monoclonal antibody STRO-1 has proved to be an extremely valuable reagent for the identification, isolation and functional characterisation of human bone marrow stromal cell precursors. We are beginning to construct a detailed picture of their cell surface phenotype and have developed assays to examine the conditions required for their growth and differentiation. In recent work we have succeeded in generating bone cells from STRO-1+ marrow cells. In the future we hope to determine whether multipotential stromal stem cells exist in human bone marrow and to establish culture conditions that selectively promote either self renewal or development along any given pathway of stromal cell differentiation. Such cells would be an ideal target for gene therapy and may provide a means of treating disorders of the haemopoietic system with a suspected stromal etiology, such as aplastic anaemia, or to replace stromal tissue damaged by intensive chemotherapy regimens. Such potential applications must however, await the development of conditioning regimens that facilitate the efficient transplantation of marrow stromal cells