Fig. 1

a Isolation of human chorionic villi-derived mesenchymal stem cells (CV-CMSC) from human placenta. (i) Removal of the amnion to access the chorionic plate, (ii) pieces of CV dissected from human placenta, (iii) collagenase digestion of CV, and (iv, v) representative images of a CV-MSC donor at passage 4 (iv) and passage 9 (v) after interphase FISH analysis using a X/Y dual color probe. X chromosome fluorescence in green, Y chromosome fluorescence in orange. Scale = 25 μm. b Bright-field microscopy images of cultured CV-MSC (i –iv) and BM-MSC (v–vi) right after isolation and plastic adherence (ii), in passage 1 (i, v), in passage 5 (iii, iv), and in passage 10 (vi). Scale = 500 μm. c Representative images of Alizarin Red (calcium deposits), Toluin Blue (proteogyclans), and Oil Red O (lipid droplets) stained CV-MSC in passage 3 after respective osteogenic (i, scale = 500 μm), chondrogenic (ii, scale = 1 mm), and adipogenic (iii, scale = 100 μm) differentiation