Wagenbrenner M, Heinz T, Horas K, et al. - This in vitro study was designed to explore the presence and differentiation potential of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) isolated from the bone marrow, arthritic hyaline cartilage, the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) and full-thickness samples of the anterior joint capsule of the hip joint. A differentiation medium containing specific growth factors were applied to induce osteogenesis and adipogenesisin monolayer cell cultures for 21 days, while chondrogenesis in the presence of TGF-ß1 was conducted applying pellet-culture for 27 days. They examined differentiation process applying histological and immunohistochemical stainings as well as semiquantitative RT-PCR for assessing the mean expression levels of tissue-specific genes. This research proved the presence of MSC-like cells in all four examined donor tissues of the hip joint. There were no significant differences during osteogenic or adipogenic differentiation depending on the source of MSCs used. Future study is needed to fully ascertain the tripotent differentiation potential of cells isolated from the LCF and capsule tissue of the hip joint.