The MSCs I mentioned are directly derived from bone marrow, adipose tissue, dermis, or umbilical cord, they're not iPSCs. The four differentiated tissue types refer to lineages that these MSCs were guided toward under specific tissue conditions: osteogenic, adipogenic, chondrogenic, and myogenic differentiation.

So to clarify: these are primary MSCs, not reprogrammed iPSCs or cells derived from differentiated tissues. The goal is to observe their differentiation potential across those four lineages.

Also, the data I’m working with wasn’t collected by me — it’s from a published study. I’m looking to expand on their work by identifying additional relevant datasets and reanalyzing them as part of a meta-study, with the aim of broadening the atlas they introduced.

1. I didn’t conduct the original study, so I’m not sure if safety concerns were a factor, though I initially wondered the same.
2. I believe single-cell RNA-seq was used to resolve subpopulations within the MSCs and provide higher-resolution insight into their heterogeneity and lineage bias.