[Cell source for regenerative medicine].

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a potential cellular source for stem cell-based therapy, since they have the ability to proliferate and differentiate into mesodermal tissues. Human MSCs have been used clinically to treat patients with graft versus host disease and osteogenesis imperfecta. We previously showed that murine and human marrow-derived MSCs can differentiate into cardiomyocytes, skeletal myocytes, osteoblasts, chondroblasts, adipocytes, and neuron. We here show that sources of MSCs with multipotency includes placenta, endometrium, menstrual blood, umbilical cord, cartilage and so on. Differentiation potentials of MSCs depend on cell source, implying that MSCs obtained from each source have differential default state ex vivo.