For phenotypic characterization, 5 × 105 MSCs were trypsinized and washed twice with PBS, and were incubated with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated anti-CD29 (ab255354), anti-CD44 (ab189524) and anti-CD45 (ab40763) (all from Abcam, USA) at a dilution rate of 1: 500 for 30 min at 4 °C. Then, MSCs were washed twice with PBS again and analyzed by CytoFLEX S Flow cytometry (Beckman, USA).
For adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation, 2 × 104 MSCs were seeded in a 6-well plate and maintained with osteogenic differentiation medium and adipogenic differentiation medium (Cyagen, USA) for 3 weeks. Mineralized nodule and lipid droplets were detected by alizarin red and Oil red O staining kit (Cyagen, USA), and observed under a fluorescence inverted microscope.