Transplantation of OC9+ Cells Demonstrates Their Multipotent Properties.

<p>Stromal cells derived from <i>Osterix-Cre</i>/<i>Ai9</i> mice were cultured for 5 days, loaded into a scaffold, and transplanted into a femoral skeletal defect. (<b>A</b>) Skeletal healing of the defect was monitored by x-ray over a 6 week period. (<b>B, D</b>) Detection of OC9+ cellular progeny (red) in a femoral tissue section 6 weeks after transplantation. (<b>C, E</b>) The same tissue section shown in <b>A</b> and <b>D</b> now counterstained with hematoxylin. (<b>B</b>) A low magnification image showing OC9 cellular progeny (red) contributing to cortical and trabecular bone tissue detected by DIC imaging and hematoxylin counterstaining (purple). The yellow arrow denotes the boundary between host bone and donor bone. (<b>D, E</b>) In addition to differentiating into osteoblasts and making bone tissue, higher magnification reveals that OC9+ cells contribute to bone marrow adipocytes within the marrow and perivascular cells lining the vascular sinusoids (B = bone, F = adipocytes, and S = vascular sinusoid).