ORIGINAL PAPER Bone morphogenetic protein receptor IB as a marker for enrichment of osteogenic precursor-like cells in human dermis Jinguang He • Jiasheng Dong • Tao Wang • Hua Xu • Chuanchang Dai • Sunxiang Ma • Lian Zhu Received: 8 March 2011 / Revised: 13 May 2011 / Accepted: 24 May 2011 / Published online: 5 June 2011 Ó Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract The scarcity of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) prompts the search for alternative sources for cell-based bone defects repair. Human dermal fibroblasts (FBs) have been shown to have a high prolif- erative potential and the capacity to differentiate into an osteogenic phenotype. The easy and repeated harvest in large quantities makes this cell source a potential candidate for bone tissue engineering. The aim of our study was to compare directly the immune phenotype, proliferative capacity and osteogenic differentiation potential of FBs with that of ‘‘gold standard’’ BMSCs or adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ADSCs), another alternative osteoprogenitor cell source. Flow cytometry demonstrated that FBs, ADSCs and BMSCs shared common cell surface marker protein expression profiles when using a panel of surface antigens. FBs had the highest proliferative poten- tial, but lowest osteogenic differentiation potential in vitro, compared with ADSCs or BMSCs. More importantly, BMPR-IB ? -sorted FBs subpopulation had a higher osteo- genic differentiation potential than BMPR-IB - -sorted FBs subpopulation. Our results indicated that the heterogeneous FBs were not an appropriate cell source for bone tissue engineering. Immunoselection by BMPR-IB can generate highly purified osteogenic precursor-like cells in the human dermis. Keywords Bone morphogenetic protein receptor IB Á Osteogenesis Á Dermal fibroblasts Introduction Bone defects repair is dependent on local or circulated osteoprogenitors for bone synthesis at the defect site, which can benefit from cell-based therapies [6, 13]. Bone tissue engineering has been designed to optimize the delivery of cells with osteogenic differentiation to the site of bone loss [14, 27]. Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the ability to self-renew and differentiate into osteoprogenitors and osteoblasts, representing a promising cell source in these tissue engineering strategies [3, 18, 26]. They have been isolated from various tissues, including adipose tissue [28], amniotic fluid [19] and umbilical cord perivascular origin [21], other than bone marrow [12]. MSCs obtained by bone marrow aspiration from patients can be readily expanded in culture while retaining their differentiation into osteocytes and are accepted as the ‘‘gold standard’’ cell source for tissue engineering applications [1, 4]. However, a limited availability of stem cells and the donor site morbidity are the major impediments [1]. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ADSCs) are an alternative source for future clinical application [22, 28]. They can be easily obtained in large quantities under local anesthesia with a minimum of patient discomfort and have the ability for osteogenic differentiation [29]. Another recently identified MSC source is human der- mal fibroblasts (FBs). Various studies have demonstrated that FBs exhibited adipogenic, osteogenic and chondro- genic differentiation potential under certain factors, and several stem cells can be obtained from skin dermis using different culture systems [2, 5, 25]. In addition, our J. He Á J. Dong (&) Á T. Wang Á H. Xu Á C. Dai Á S. Ma Á L. Zhu (&) Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Shanghai 9th People’s Hospital, Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 639 Zhi Zao Ju Rd, Shanghai 200011, People’s Republic of China e-mail: jsdong2011@hotmail.com L. Zhu e-mail: zhulian6@hotmail.com 123 Arch Dermatol Res (2011) 303:581–590 DOI 10.1007/s00403-011-1156-6