Researchers use gold nanoparticles to help identify and enrich skeletal stem cells

An interdisciplinary research team of physicists, chemists and tissue engineering experts has designed gold nanoparticles coated in short DNA strands able to ‘seek out’ skeletal stem cells in bone marrow, revealing their locations amongst other cell types and allowing their isolation and enrichment. Skeletal stem cells within human bone marrow-derived stromal cells have the capacity to differentiate into various cell types – including adipocytes and chondrocytes – and thus have a number potential therapeutic applications, such as in bone healing. Richard Oreffo, Professor of Musculoskeletal Science at the University of Southampton (UK) and co-lead study author, explained: “Skeletal stem cell...