Utility of irradiated, bone marrow-transplanted, marker tolerant rats for regenerative studies and cell tracking

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Marker tolerant, immunocompetent animals as a new tool for regenerative medicine and long-term cell tracking"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6750/7/30</p><p>BMC Biotechnology 2007;7():30-30.</p><p>Published online 8 Jun 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1899491.</p><p></p> When hPLAP-tg BMC were injected into the knee joint of irradiated WT (hPLAP-BMT) rats, there is a 2 – 3 cells wide layer of donor cells (arrowheads) on the cartilage surface, 1 week post-injection (A). Inset in (A) shows lack of hPLAP-staining in the articular cartilage of an irradiated WT (hPLAP-BMT) control rat not injected with transgenic BMC. Four weeks post-injection, transgenic donor cells have adopted a fibroblast-like (arrowheads) or chondrocyte-like (arrows) appearance, and show incorporation into the surrounding chondrocyte matrix of host origin (B). Five-μm-thick undecalcified MMA sections of ethanol-fixed knee joints stained for hPLAP activity after heat pretreatment and counterstained with nuclear fast red. Bar = 50 μm