Bone marrow-derived SP cells can contribute to the respiratory tract of mice in vivo.

Recent work has indicated that adult bone marrow-derived cells have the ability to contribute to both the haematopoietic system and other organs. Haematopoietic reconstitution by whole bone marrow and selected but not fully characterised cell populations have resulted in reports indicating high-level repopulation of lung epithelia. The well-characterised cells from the side population have a robust ability for haematopoietic reconstitution. We have used freshly isolated side population cells derived from ROSA26 adult bone marrow and demonstrate that despite being unable to contribute to embryos following blastocyst injection, or air liquid interface cultures or denuded tracheal xenografts, they could contribute to the tracheal epithelium in vivo. Epithelial damage is reported to be important in encouraging the recruitment of marrow-derived stem cells into non-haematopoietic organs. Here we demonstrate that mice engrafted with side population cells have donor-derived cells present in the epithelial lining of the trachea following damage and repair. Donor-derived cells were found at a frequency of 0.83%. Widefield and confocal microscopy revealed donor cells that expressed cytokeratins, indicative of cells of an epithelial nature. These results imply that SP haematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow do not have the ability to contribute to airway epithelia themselves but require factors present in vivo to allow them to acquire characteristics of this tissue.