Stem cell therapy can help repair damaged heart tissue. Yet many of the suitable cells currently identified for human use are difficult to obtain and involve invasive procedures. In our search for novel stem cells with a higher cardiomyogenic potential than those available from bone marrow, we discovered that potent cardiac precursor-like cells can be harvested from human menstrual blood. This represents a new, noninvasive, and potent source of cardiac stem cell therapeutic material. We demonstrate that menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal cells (

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common lethal genetic disorder in children, is an X-linked recessive muscle disease characterized by the absence of dystrophin at the sarcolemma of muscle fibers. We examined a putative endometrial progenitor obtained from endometrial tissue samples to determine whether these cells repair muscular degeneration in a murine mdx model of DMD. Implanted cells conferred human dystrophin in degenerated muscle of immunodeficient mdx mice. We then examined menstrual blood-derived cells to determine whether primarily cultured nontransformed cells also repair dystrophied muscle. In vivo transfer of menstrual blood-derived cells into dystrophic muscles of immunodeficient mdx mice restored sarcolemmal expression of dystrophin. Labeling of implanted cells with enhanced green fluorescent protein and differential staining of human and murine nuclei suggest that human dystrophin expression is due to cell fusion between host myocytes and implanted cells. In vitro analysis revealed that endometrial progenitor cells and menstrual blood-derived cells can efficiently transdifferentiate into myoblasts/myocytes, fuse to C2C12 murine myoblasts by in vitro coculturing, and start to express dystrophin after fusion. These results demonstrate that the endometrial progenitor cells and menstrual blood-derived cells can transfer dystrophin into dystrophied myocytes through cell fusion and transdifferentiation in vitro and in vivo.

ABSTRACT

Spiropyran is a photoresponsive molecule, and nonionic spiropyran is reversibly changed by UV irradiation to a hydrophilic polar, zwitterionic merocyanine isomer, and back again by visible light irradiation. A copolymer of nitrobenzospiropyran and methyl methacrylate, poly(NSP-co-MMA) was used as a material with a photosensitive surface. UV irradiation of the photosensitive surface of poly(NSP-co-MMA)-coated glass plates decreased the water contact angles (11 +/- 1 degrees ) and increased diameter of a water drop relative to the unexposed surface. Light-induced detachment of platelets and mesenchymal stem (KUSA-A1) cells on poly(NSP-co-MMA)-coated glass plates was observed upon simple- and patterned-light irradiation, whereas no light-induced detachment of platelets and mesenchymal stem cells was observed on poly(methyl methacrylate)-coated glass plates. This is a result of the change from a closed nonpolar spiropyran to the polar zwitterionic merocyanine isomer induced by UV irradiation. Light-induced detachment of fibrinogen adsorbed on poly(NSP-co-MMA) coated glass plates was also observed in this investigation.

Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCBMSCs) are expected to serve as an excellent alternative to bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells. However, it is difficult to study them because of their limited life span. To overcome this problem, we attempted to produce a strain of UCBMSCs with a long life span and to investigate whether the strain could maintain phenotypes in vitro. UCBMSCs were infected with retrovirus carrying the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) to prolong their life span. The UCBMSCs underwent 30 population doublings (PDs) and stopped dividing at PD 37. The UCBMSCs newly established with hTERT (UCBTERTs) proliferated for >120 PDs. The p16 INK4a /RB braking pathway leading to senescence can be inhibited by introduction of Bmi-1, a polycomb-group gene, and human papillomavirus type 16 E7, but the extension of the life span of the UCBMSCs with hTERT did not require inhibition of the p16 INK4a /RB pathway. The characteristics of the UCBTERTs remained unchanged during the prolongation of life span. UCBTERTs provide a powerful model for further study of cellular senescence and for future application to cell-based therapy by using umbilical cord blood cells. INTRODUCTIONHuman mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) can be a useful source of cells for transplantation for several reasons: they have the ability to proliferate and differentiate into mesodermal tissues, and they entail no ethical or immunological problems (Caplan, 1991;Prockop, 1997;Caplan and Bruder, 2001). hMSCs have been studied extensively over the past 3 decades, and numerous independent research groups have successfully isolated hMSCs from a variety of sources, most commonly, from the bone marrow (Owen, 1988;Umezawa et al., 1992;Jaiswal et al., 1997;Makino et al., 1999;Pittenger et al., 1999;Sekiya et al., 2004). Umbilical cord blood (UCB) contains circulating stem/progenitor cells, and the cells contained in UCB are known to be distinct from those contained in bone marrow and adult peripheral blood (Mayani and Lansdorp, 1998). Isolation, characterization, and differentiation of clonally expanded hMSCs derived from UCB (UCBMSCs) have been reported (Goodwin et al., 2001;Lee et al., 2004), and UCBMSCs have been found to have multipotency, and the immunophenotype of the clonally expanded cells is consistent with that reported for bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Even now, most UCB is regarded as medical waste in the delivery rooms. Aspirating bone marrow from patients is, however, an invasive procedure, and the proliferation and differentiation capacity of hMSCs decreases with the donor age (D'Ippolito et al., 1999). Therefore, the applications of UCB should be further expanded.UCBMSCs will be useful sources for cell transplantation, however, it is difficult to study and apply them because of their limited life span. One of the reasons for this is that normal human cells undergo a limited number of cell division in culture and then enter a nondividing state called "senescence" (Hayflick, 1976;Campisi...