Elsevier

Stem Cell Research

Volume 11, Issue 3, November 2013, Pages 1288-1298
Stem Cell Research

Identification of suitable reference genes in bone marrow stromal cells from osteoarthritic donors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scr.2013.08.015Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • For the first time reference gene identification in BMSCs from OA vs. healthy donors.

  • IPO8, TBP, and CASC3 were identified as the most stable reference genes.

  • Commonly used reference genes (e.g. ACTB) were identified to be very unsuitable.

  • Combined use of 3 to 5 of the most stable expressed genes is suitable.

Abstract

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are key cellular components for musculoskeletal tissue engineering strategies. Furthermore, recent data suggest that BMSCs are involved in the development of Osteoarthritis (OA) being a frequently occurring degenerative joint disease. Reliable reference genes for the molecular evaluation of BMSCs derived from donors exhibiting OA as a primary co-morbidity have not been reported on yet. Hence, the aim of the study was to identify reference genes suitable for comparative gene expression analyses using OA-BMSCs.

Passage 1 bone marrow derived BMSCs were isolated from n = 13 patients with advanced stage idiopathic hip osteoarthritis and n = 15 age-matched healthy donors. The expression of 31 putative reference genes was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) using a commercially available TaqMan® assay. Calculating the coefficient of variation (CV), mRNA expression stability was determined and afterwards validated using geNorm and NormFinder algorithms.

Importin 8 (IPO8), TATA box binding protein (TBP), and cancer susceptibility candidate 3 (CASC3) were identified as the most stable reference genes. Notably, commonly used reference genes, e.g. beta-actin (ACTB) and beta-2-microglobulin (B2M) were among the most unstable genes.

For normalization of gene expression data of OA-BMSCs the combined use of IPO8, TBP, and CASC3 gene is recommended.

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