Differentiation Potential of Adult Rat Stem Cells

描述（由申请人提供）：人们对探索来自骨髓的成体干细胞的潜在治疗用途越来越感兴趣。然而，目前尚不清楚哪种干细胞群或细胞表型最适合有效治疗可能适合这种治疗方法的各种疾病。关于成体骨髓干细胞的基本生物学以及它们是否将提供可以修复受损组织和改善疾病过程的细胞来源的基本信息很少。因此，我们提出了一系列的实验来测试的核心假设，纯化的成年大鼠骨髓来源的干细胞的亚群是有效的修复受损的心脏和肺组织。已经制定了三个具体目标来直接检验假设： 具体目标： 1.建立从广泛表达绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）的雄性转基因大鼠骨髓中纯化的成体干细胞亚群的形态学和分子特征。 2.为了确定干细胞亚群在离体共培养试验中的分化潜力，我们最近开发了来自心脏和肺组织的正常和受损原代细胞。 3.目的：观察野百合碱诱导的肺动脉高压大鼠模型中干细胞亚群的移植和分化潜能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is increasing interest in exploring the potential therapeutic uses of adult stem cells from bone marrow. Currently, however, it is not understood which stem cell populations or cellular phenotypes are best suited to effectively treat a variety of diseases that may be amenable to such a therapeutic approach. There is very little fundamental information on the basic biology of adult bone marrow stem cells and whether or not they will provide a source of cells that can repair damaged tissues and ameliorate a disease process. Thus, we have proposed a series of experiments to test the central hypothesis that purified sub-populations of adult rat bone marrow-derived stem cells are effective in repairing injured cardiac and pulmonary tissues. Three specific aims have been developed to directly test the hypothesis: Specific Aim: 1. To establish the morphologic and molecular profiles of purified adult stem cell sub-populations from the bone marrow of male transgenic rats that ubiquitously express green fluorescent protein (GFP). 2. To determine the differentiation potential of the stem cell sub-populations in ex vivo co-culture assays we have recently developed with normal and injured primary cells from cardiac and pulmonary tissues. 3. To determine the engraftment and differentiation potential of the stem cell sub-populations in a rat model of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension.