Mesenchymal Stem Cells – What is in the Name?

Since more than 40 years ago Friedenstein first described cells derived from bone marrow stroma that were plastic adherent and had the ability to differentiate into other lineages, our knowledge about stem cells has constantly been growing over the last decades.
Nearly 10 years ago a definition was given by Dominici et al describing Mesenchymal Stem Cells as being plastic adherent, expressing CD73, CD90, CD105 and having the ability to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes and chondrocytes. Since this time the expression “Mesenchymal Stem Cells” has been used to describe what we believe are multipotent cells.