aged 51, 52, 56 and 71). Bone marrow from the four patients was utilised for
isolation and culture of bone marrow SSCs. SSC isolation has been described
previously.23 (link),24 Bone marrow was first washed and the solution was passed
through a 70-μm cell strainer and subjected to density centrifugation using
Lymphoprep™ (Lonza, Slough, UK). The buffy coat layer, containing bone marrow
mononuclear cells, was incubated with blocking buffer (α-MEM (Lonza), 10% human
serum (Sigma, Gillingham, UK), 5% foetal bovine serum (FBS) (Thermo Fisher
Scientific, Basingstoke, UK) and 10 mg/mL bovine serum albumin (BSA) (Sigma))
followed by washing with magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) buffer (PBS with
0.5% BSA and 2 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA; Sigma)). Cell
suspension was incubated with 1 mL STRO-1 antibody (generated in-house from
hybridoma). Following washing with MACS buffer, cells were incubated in rat
anti-mouse IgM microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec Ltd, Woking, UK). After further
washing with MACS buffer, target cell population was isolated by MACS and
resuspended in basal media (α-MEM containing 10% FBS and 1%
penicillin/streptomycin; Lonza) and plated into tissue culture flasks.