Multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are currently the subject of over 1000 clinical trials. However, they are primarily sourced from tissue donations, meaning their supply is subject to lack of available donors, donor-donor variation and low cell yields. To address this, MSCs have recently been derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). While the use of iPSC-derived MSCs in the clinic has produced very favourable results, questions still exist about comparability of iPSC-MSCs to their tissue-derived counterparts. This is complicated by the fact that the MSC phenotype is not well defined and MSCs vary between donors, tissue sources, and within individual cell populations.
Here we have compared iPSC and tissue-derived MSCs from a variety of donors and tissue sources. We show differences in proliferation, morphology and, not only differentiation capacity, but also the resulting cell phenotype. We also detect variation in individual surface-antigen profiles. iPSC-derived MSCs were found to compare favourably to their tissue-derived counterparts, and our data also suggests varying levels of heterogeneity between iPSC and tissue-derived MSCs. Our results help to elucidate the sources and extent of heterogeneity amongst both tissue-derived and iPSC-MSCs and support iPSC-MSCs as a promising alternative in the clinic.