Can I detect the differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells by their morphology, without doing any cell staining?

• Adipogenic differentiation can be identified morphologically and without any staining by the formation of intracellular lipid vesicles.
• In contrast, when MSC differentiate into bone cells, there is no significant change in morphology. It is recommended to perform Alkaline Phosphatase staining to detect osteoblastic differentiation or Alizarin Red S staining to show osteoblast mineralization.
• Chondrogenic differentiation is generally performed as spheroids in 3-D cell culture and not in 2-D monolayer culture. Staining with Alcian Blue to visualize the differentiation process is indispensable.
• Neurogenic differentiation can be detected using neuron specific markers (e.g. beta-3 tubulin, NeuN, MAP2) and by their typical neuronal morphology.

For differentiation protocols, please see attached Application Notes.