Figure 1

Characterization of mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells. (a) Flow cytometric analysis showing the expressing of cell surface markers Sca1, CD44, CD34 and CD45. (b) Spindle-shaped morphology of cells that appear at passage 5 (upper left); the cells differentiated into mineralizing cells stained with alizarin red (upper right); adipogenesis of cells was stained with Oil-red-O (lower left); and accumulation of sulfated glycosaminoglycan matrix deposition was visualized by Safarin-O staining at 3 weeks of chondrogenic induction (the lower right). Scale bar, 100 μm. mBM-MSCs, mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells.