In contrast to many other adherent cell lines, HPB-AML-I cells with their round-polygonal morphology were viable and capable of proliferating

selleck products and adhering to plastic surfaces following cell passage. Similar findings have been reported for the F6 cell line [21]. While the exact mechanisms remain to be elucidated, we speculate that the loss of adherent capacity after confluent condition may be a pivotal property to neoplasms originated from mesenchymal stem cells. Flow cytometric analysis of HPB-AML-I disclosed that, based on ISCT criteria, the cell-surface antigen expression patterns of this cell line were similar to those of human MSCs (reviewed by [2]) with positive CD73 and negative CD14, CD19, CD34, CD45 and HLA-DR expression. However, contrary to those criteria (reviewed by [2]), HPB-AML-I did not express CD90 and CD105. Absence of CD90 expression has also been observed in UCBTERT-21 [15] and in human MSCs obtained from umbilical cord blood [15, 26]. MSCs lacking CD105 expression have been reported by Jiang et al. [27] and

Ishimura et al. [28], who isolated MSCs from the subcutaneous adipose tissue, and by Lopez-Villar et al. [29], who extracted MSCs from the bone marrow of a myelodysplastic syndrome case. These reports suggested that the absence of CD90 and CD105 expression in HPB-AML-I does not necessarily exclude the possibility that this cell line is derived from MSCs. The differentiation capability of MSCs with Fosbretabulin a negative CD105 expression has been investigated by Jiang et al. [27] and Ishimura et al. [28]. They found that this population of MSCs, while showing adipogenic differentiation, lacked chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation. It is interesting that HPB-AML-I could Selleck Salubrinal differentiate into three lineages despite of CD105 negativity. In addition, a subpopulation of HPB-AML-I expressed CD45, even though most of HPB-AML-I

cells were negative for CD45. Generally, CD45 is negative in MSCs, but CD45 expression has been detected in bone marrow MSCs from cases with multiple myeloma [30, 31]. It is therefore not surprising that neoplastic MSC line, such as HPB-AML-I, shows the aberrant expression to of this antigen. Interestingly, CD45 expression in HPB-AML-I cells is likely to be transient, as the expression levels of CD45 increased in round-polygonal cells in the confluent cell culture and they decreased after passage of round-polygonal cells. Normal cells are known to have the property of contact inhibition, which is lost in transformed cells. Therefore, cell-to-cell contact might induce the aberrant expression of CD45 with an unknown reason in HPB-AML-I cells. By using inverted microscopic examination and cytochemical staining, we demonstrated that HPB-AML-I cells are able to acquire the properties of adipocytes, chondrocytes, and osteocytes. The capability of MSCs to differentiate toward mesenchymal lineage cells reportedly correlates with their morphological and cell-surface antigen expression patterns. Chang et al.