“…Cultured human bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) synthesize collagenous and noncollagenous proteins in vitro that are components of normal skeletal matrix (Benayahu et al, 1989;. Following their expansion in tissue culture, the BMSCs from many species are capable of forming new bone when transplanted into immunocompromised recipient mice (Ashton et al, 1980(Ashton et al, , 1984Friedenstein, 1973;Friedenstein et al, 1974;Gundle et al, 1995;Haynesworth et al, 1992;Krebsbach et al, 1997Krebsbach et al, , 1999Kuznetsov et al, 1989;Ohgushi et al, 1990Ohgushi et al, , 1996Thomson et al, 1993). In addition to heterotopic transplantation, BMSCs have been shown to repair induced bone defects in various animal models (Bruder et al, 1998a,b;Casabona et al, 1998;Krebsbach et al, 1998).…”