Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Pericytes are a source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) having multilineage differentiation potential that are found on the wall of blood vessels. We have isolated, purified and characterized pericytes from liver as CD146+CD34-CD45-CD56- from wild-type (WT) and myostatin null (Mstn-/-) mice. CD146+ cells isolated from WT liver expressed myostatin and pericytes from both the genotypes expressed pericyte and adult stem cell markers and did not express αSMA and GFAP. CD146+ cells could be readily differentiated into adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic lineages. When subjected to myogenic differentiation, these CD146+ cells behaved contrastingly as fibrogenic and myogenic precursors when isolated from two different genotypes WT and Mstn-/- respectively. Presence or absence of myostatin in vitro may play a role in determining the fate of pericytes like cells in liver. Furthermore CD146+ cells from the liver can be useful candidates for cell therapy studies.