Fig. 1.

Properties of Muse cells. Muse cells can be collected from cultured mesenchymal cells (fibroblasts, bone marrow-MSCs, or fat-MSCs) and mesenchymal tissues (adipose tissue, dermis, and bone marrow aspirates) as cells double-positive for SSEA-3 and CD105. After isolating Muse cells by FACS, single Muse cells cultured in suspension (single cell suspension culture) generate characteristic clusters that express markers related to pluripotency [alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Nanog, Sox2, Oct3/4, SSEA-3]. When cell clusters were transferred onto gelatin culture and spontaneous differentiation was induced, cells with endodermal- (alpha-fetoprotein + cells), ectodermal- (neurofilament + cells), and mesodermal- (desmin + cells) lineage were observed. We confirmed that Muse cells continued to self-renew up to the fifth generation, indicating that they are pluripotent