Isolation and Culture of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells from the Human Mandible

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have shown great potential in bone regeneration, immune modulation, and treating refractory chronic diseases. Various origins have been found to obtain hMSCs recently, while bone marrow was still considered the main source. Bone marrow-derived MSCs (BMSCs) from different donor bone sites have distinct characteristics due to microenvironmental factors. Studies have shown that BMSCs from maxillofacial bone may have greater proliferative and osteogenic capacities than BMSCs from long bones or the iliac crest. And maxillofacial BMSCs were considered more suitable for stem cell therapy in the maxillofacial tissues. The mandible, especially the ascending ramal area with sufficient marrow, was a feasible donor site for harvesting BMSCs. This study described a protocol for harvesting, isolating, and culturing human mandibular bone marrow-derived MSCs (hmBMSCs). Furthermore, immunophenotyping of hmBMSCs, proliferation assays, and in vitro induction of osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation was performed to identify the cultured cells. Applying this protocol can help the researchers successfully obtain enough high-quality hmBMSCs, which is necessary for further studies of the biological function, microenvironmental effects, and clinical applications.