Adipose Derived Stem Cells and Application in Musculoskeletal Tissue Repair

Tissue engineering offers considerable promise in the repair or replacement of diseased and damaged tissue.musculoskeletal tissues, such as bone, cartilage, intervertebral disc and tendon, contain cells that are difficult to culture and stimulate in vitro for repair of damaged tissue. For example Articular cartilage, which is the most important tissue in the joint, consists of chondrocytes and abundant extracellular matrix, including aggrecan, and shows poor self-repair. Stem cells are a population possessing 1) self-renewal capacity, 2) long-term viability, and 3) multilineage potential. Recent progress in stem cell research has led to an enthusiastic effort to utilize stem cells for musculoskeletal tissue regeneration. This review focuses on the characterization of ASC through expression of surface markers; cosideration of in vitro differentiation of ASC through different scaffolds, growth factors, and media; and the use of ASC in musculoskeletal tissue repair.