Dear Jeff Silverman,
Thanks for your advice, hope you don't mind  more questions!  I understood
that CD34 labeled endothelial cells but I see from your articles that it
has also been described in non reactive fibroblasts. (Is a non reactive
fibroblast a fibrocyte?) I'm a little confused I thought that fibrocytes
were inactive or resting fibroblasts yet you say "CD34+ interstital cells
also give rise to  collagen producing fibrocytes which are positive for
vimentin and procollagen  type 1."  Are all fibrocytes positive for
vimentin or just collagen-producing ones? In an earlier mail on histonet
you said that CD34 stains "if you want undifferentiated reserve cell
fibroblasts, you can stain for CD34" are these between fibrocytes and
fibroblasts? Can you make a summary (or point me towards one on the net) of
the different states of fibroblasts?

So in our adipose tissue CD34 should label blood vessels but also nr
fibroblasts. This should be interesting in comparaison with vWF which has
been reported to label only/all (?) blood vessels endothelial cells.
However Vailhe et al (1999) found CD34 to label more vessels than vWF  :
 http://www.pni-labor.de/pdf/vailhe_et_al.pdf.

You said "I have come to believe that the ubiquitous CD34+  dendritic
interstitial fibroblast-like cell is an adipocyte precursor".  Can
fibrocytes (vimentin+) also be considered to be adipocyte precursors?

And finally, you say "I know that there are many varied genetic markers
for genes involved in various stages of adipocyte development. I wonder how
many  of these can be colocalized to CD34+ dendritic cells in adipose and
fibrous connective tissue." What kind of markers of adipocyte developement
do you know of?  I've asked Dr. Cinti, a specialist on adipose tissue,
about  markers for an adipocyte precursor and he replied that such work is
ongoing.  I've heard about pref1, although other researchers at Sanofi were
unsuccessful in conducting IHC with this marker, I just found an old
histonet posting about this antibody.

You also said in a previous email "I love to chat about this stuff" thats
fortunate, I'm debarking on this new subject and need some light.
yours truely,

Nancy Walker
Molecular Biology Scientist

Sanofi-Synthelbo Research
B.P. 37 Labége Innopole
31676 LABEGE CEDEX FRANCE

nancy.walker@sanofi-synthelabo.com
tel : (33)561004179  fax :(33)561004001