Meng Gao, Junjian Chen, Gengwei Lin, Shiwu Li, Lin Wang, Anjun Qin, Zujin Zhao, Li Ren, Yingjun Wang, Ben Zhong Tang
Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have shown great potential for bone repair due to their strong proliferation ability and osteogenic capacity. To evaluate and improve the stem cell-based therapy, long-term tracking of stem cell differentiation into bone-forming osteoblasts is required. However, conventional fluorescent trackers such as fluorescent proteins, quantum dots, and fluorophores with aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) characteristics have intrinsic limitations of possible interference with stem cell differentiation, heavy metal cytotoxicity, and self-quenching at a high labeling intensity...
July 20, 2016: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces