Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, Vol 54, Issue 2 B54-B62, Copyright © 1999 by The Gerontological Society of America
Age-related phenotypic alterations in populations of purified human bone precursor cells
MW Long, EK Ashcraft, D Normalle and KG Mann
Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. [email protected]
The ability to purify and characterize phenotypic markers of human bone
precursor cells provides an important means to study the basis of age- or
disease-related changes in osteogenesis. Utilizing immunologically purified
and characterized populations of human bone preosteoblast-like cells, we
demonstrate that distinct age-related alterations occur in bone cell
phenotypic markers, and additionally document the presence of a
subpopulation of elderly individuals who express markedly reduced amounts
of bone proteins. These findings provide insights into the early phases of
bone cell development, and provide a means for evaluating age- and/or
disease-mediated changes in bone cell development.
