Can Human Oral Mucosa Stem Cells Differentiate to Corneal Epithelia?

Abstract

Human oral mucosa stem cells (hOMSCs) arise from the neural crest, they can self-renew, proliferate, and differentiate to several cell lines and could represent a good source for application in tissue engineering. Because of their anatomical location, hOMSCs are easy to isolate, have multilineage differentiation capacity and express embryonic stem cells markers such as—Sox2, Oct3/4 and Nanog. We have used SHEM (supplemented hormonal epithelial medium) media and cultured hOMSCs over human amniotic membrane and determined the cell’s capacity to differentiate to an epithelial-like phenotype and to express corneal specific epithelial markers—CK3, CK12, CK19, Pan-cadherin and E-cadherin. Our results showed that hOMSCs possess the capacity to attach to the amniotic membrane and express CK3, CK19, Pan-Cadherin and E-Cadherin without induction with SHEM media and expressed CK12 or changed the expression pattern of E-Cadherin to a punctual-like feature when treated with SHEM media. The results observed in this study show that hOMSCs possess the potential to differentiate toward epithelial cells. In conclusion, our results revealed that hOMSCs readily express markers for corneal determination and could provide the ophthalmology field with a therapeutic alternative for tissue engineering to achieve corneal replacement when compared with other techniques. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to develop a predictable therapeutic alternative for cornea replacement.

The clinical efficacy of a new surgical technique of oral mucosal epithelial transplantation for severe ocular surface disorders

“…Alternative stem cell sources as aforementioned, including oral mucosal epithelial cells (15,16), mesenchymal stem cells (18, 19), hair follicle stem cells (20), and human pluripotent stem cells (21). Among them, cultivated oral mucosal epithelial sheet transplantation (COMET) was used relatively frequently and veri ed to be effective (15)(16)(17)(31)(32)(33). Others were seldom applied in clinical uses and lack of evaluations.…”

Extracellular vesicles from oral mucosa stem cells promote lipid raft formation in human microglia through TLR4, P2X4R, and αVβ3/αVβ5 signaling pathways

“…In this study, we used EVs isolated from human oral mucosa stem cells (OMSC). OMSCs originate from the neural crest, reside within the lamina propria of the buccal mucosa and possess remarkable potential for differentiating into ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm cell lineages (López et al, 2021; Stančin et al, 2023). Several studies demonstrated neuroprotective properties of OMSCs (Dehghanian et al, 2022; Stančin et al, 2023).…”

Human Oral Mucosa as a Potentially Effective Source of Neural Crest Stem Cells for Clinical Practice

“…OM represents an on-demand easy access source of autologous cells and is a rich source of a large number of stem cells. OM stem cells (OMSCs) are a significant source of stem cells and have the capacity to differentiate into cell lineages outside their tissue of origin to regenerate corneal epithelium [ 3 ], burned skin [ 4 ], and the esophagus [ 5 ]. OM lamina propria contains mesenchymal stem cell populations that can be differentiated to form bone cells [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] or neuronal–dopaminergic cells with therapeutic potential in the hemi-Parkinsonian rat model [ 10 ] or differentiated into astrocyte-like cells that provide peripheral neuroprotection, significantly increasing motor performance after sciatic nerve injury in rats [ 11 ].…”