Comparison of Differentiation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Bone-Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Osteoblast: Osteogenesis versus Pluripotency

BACKGROUND: Derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from various adult somatic cells through over-expression of pluripotent genes could allow for the unlimited autologous supply in regenerative medicine. On the other hand the generation of various progenitors from bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is justly well established. OBJECTIVE: In this study we compared the expression level of pluripotent genes oct4, c-myc, sox-2, nanog, klf4 and lin28 in iPSCs and MSCs derived from bone marrow. Also the potential of osteogenesis of iPSCs and bone-marrow MSCs were compared. METHODS: We analyzed the expression level of oct4, sox-2, c-myc, klf4, nanog and lin28 genes in human MSCs derived from iPSCs and MSCs by cell culture and real-time PCR. Also the expression level of osteocalcin and osteopontin in both groups were evaluated. RESULTS: We found that the expression of osteogenic markers in differentiated iPSCs to osteoblast were higher than bone-marrow MSCs. While the levels of pluripotency genes oct4, c-myc and klf4 in iPSCs were significantly (p<0.05) higher than bone-marrow MSCs, MSCs showed higher expression of sox-2, nanog and lin28 compared with iPSCs (p=NS). CONCLUSION: It seems that the higher expression of osteopontin and osteocalcin in MSCs compared to iPSCs may be due to other factors (besides pluripotency) required for differentiation of stem cells to osteoblast.