Vessel-associated stem cells from skeletal muscle: From biology to future uses in cell therapy

Figure 2 Cell morphology and multilineage differentiation of human mesoangioblasts. A: Phase contrast image showing human proliferating mesoangioblasts with refractive triangular, adherent and round loosely adherent/floating components. Scale bar: 40 μm; B: Skeletal muscle differentiation. After exposure to normal human myoblasts-conditioned medium and subsequently to differentiation medium, human mesoangioblasts efficiently fuse into myosin-positive fully differentiated myotubes. Scale bar: 40 μm; C: Smooth-muscle differentiation. After treatment with TGFβ human mesoangioblasts stained with anti-α-SMA antibody show approximately 80% positivity. Scale bar: 10 μm; D: Osteoblasts differentiation. After treatment with BMP2 human mesoangioblasts differentiate into strongly ALP-positive osteoblast-like cells. Scale bar: 40 μm.