Culture of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells isolated from lumbar vertebral arches and spinous processes

Objective To study the feasibility of the isolation and culture of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) from human vertebral arches and spinous processes. Methods Cells were isolated and cultured from three samples of human lumbar vertebral arches and spinous processes by density gradient centrifugation. The hMSCs isolated from the iliac crest were used as control cells. We observed the morphology and passaging ability of the cells, and used cytometry to detect their surface markers. To study and compare their ability to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes, the cells were cultured in osteogenic, adipogenic and chondrogenic differentiation medium respectively.Statisticalanalysis of data using the Stata10.0 software. Results The cells isolated from human lumbar vertebral arches and spinous processes showed the typical morphology of mesenchymal stem cells. There was no significant difference in the number of aged cells between cells at passage 6 and those at passage 2 (6.500±1.384 vs. 6.500± 1.258, t=0.000, P>0.05). The cells were capable of differentiating into osteoblasts, adipocytes and chondrocytes. However, the pixels value of the alizarin red-stained area when differentiated into osteoblasts was significantly less than that of the control hMSCs (32.658± 3.147 vs. 61.362± 8.952, t=6.674, P 0.05) under chondrogenic differentiation conditions. Conclusion hMSCs can be isolated from human lumbar vertebral arches and spinous processes, and are identical in cell characteristics to hMSCs derived from iliac crest. There is an inverse tendency between osteogenic differentiation and adipogenic differentiation of hMSCs. Key words: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; Lumbar vertebral arches; Spinous processes; Cell differentiation