CD9 a Marker of Adipose Stem Cell Activity

Pusan, South Korea -

As stem cell therapeutics start entering the clinic it is going to be important to identify markers that can be used to quantify ability of the stem cells to perform various regenerative tasks. Such markers will be used for quality control and/or release testing of stem cell batches.

A recent paper (Kim et al. Role of CD9 in proliferation and proangiogenic action of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Pflugers Arch. 2007 Aug 1;) has identified CD9 as one potential marker for indicating activity of adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells.

The researchers found that CD9 expression correlated with

a) Ability to form colonies
b) In vitro angiogenesis as detected by the "tube forming assay"
c) NF-kB and ICAM expression
d) eNOS expression
e) Ability to cause angiogenesis in murine limb ischemia model