detection of mesenchymal stem cells in cancer tissue sample - (Jul/09/2012 )

hi everybody,
iam looking for a protocol that can detect mesenchymal stem cells directly in the tissue collected from cancer patients. Has anyone got experience in that??? please reply me iam in urgent need, thankx,

Your best bet would probably be to do histological staining for an MSC marker. STRO1 is a marker I've used in the past for MSCs with good results. There are also a few CD markers (which I can't remember off hand) that are popularly used. Unfortunately, there isn't really one perfect MSC stain that everyone agrees on.

Additionally, the possibility exists that the cancer cells themselves will express one or more of the "MSC marker" molecules. Can you give a little more detail as to what you're trying to accomplish?