Human bone marrow-derived stromal cell behavior when injected directly into the bone marrow of NOD-scid-gamma mice pre-conditioned with sub-lethal irradiation.

Background: Direct bone marrow injection of cells into murine marrow cavities is used in a range of cell characterization assays and to develop disease models. While human bone marrow-derived stromal cells (hBMSC, also known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSC)) are frequently described in therapeutic applications, or disease modeling, their behavior following direct injection into murine bone marrow is poorly characterized. Herein, we characterized hBMSC engraftment and persistence within the bone marrow of NOD-scid interleukin (IL)-2γ (NSG) mice with or without prior 2 Gy total-body γ-irradiation of recipient mice.