Like human adipose tissue and dermis, human bone marrow harbor cells with neural crest-associated characteristics.

Adult neural crest stem cells (NCSC) are of extraordinary high plasticity and promising candidates for a use in regenerative medicine. Several locations like skin, adipose tissue, dental pulp or bone marrow have been described in rodent. However, very few information is available concerning their correspondence in human tissues. The main objective of this study was therefore to characterize NCSC from adult human bone marrow. In this purpose, we compared human bone marrow stromal cells to human adipose tissue and dermis, already described for containing NCSC. We performed comparative analyses in terms of gene and protein expression, as well as functional characterizations. It appeared that human bone marrow, similarly to adipose tissue and dermis contains NESTIN+ / SOX9+ / TWIST+ / SLUG+ / P75NTR+ / BRN3A+/ MSI1+/ SNAIL1+ cells and were able to differentiate into melanocytes and Schwann cells. Moreover, when injected into chicken embryos, all those cells were able to migrate and follow endogenous neural crest migration pathways. Altogether, the phenotypic characterization and migration abilities strongly suggest the presence of neural crest-derived cells in human adult bone marrow.