Musculoskeletal disorders and injuries range from acute injuries to chronic, debilitating diseases and significantly affect an individual's well-being. This results in a significant disease burden on society as a whole. In recent years, there has been great interest in the cell-based treatment strategies and the potential of stem cell-based treatment options for the repair of musculoskeletal tissues.

In this issue, we will look at stem cells from various sources and discuss their isolation, proliferation, and differentiation. We will also consider the associated use of bioreactors, biomaterials, scaffolds, and growth factors. We will cover the use of stem cell applications for bone, cartilage, ligament, and tendon repair. We are particularly interested in manuscripts dealing with the topics that include, but are not limited to:

• Adult mesenchymal stem cells and cell surface characterization
• Sources of adult mesenchymal stem cells and applicability for musculoskeletal applications
• Differentiation of adult mesenchymal stem cells
• Stem cells applications in bone repair
• Stem cells applications in cartilage repair
• Advances in meniscal tissue engineering
• Stem cells applications in tendon and ligament repair
• Scaffolds in musculoskeletal tissue engineering

Articles published in this special issue will not be subject to the journal's Article Processing Charges.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/sci/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: