Human mesenchymal stem cells express neuronal markers after osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that are able to differentiate into mesodermal lineages (osteogenic, adipogenic, chondrogenic), but also towards non-mesodermal derivatives (e.g. neural cells). Recent in vitro studies revealed that, in the absence of any kind of differentiation stimuli, undifferentiated MSCs express neural differentiation markers, but the literature data do not all concur. Considering their promising therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases, it is very important to expand our knowledge about this particular biological property of MSCs. In this study, we confirmed the spontaneous expression of neural markers (neuronal, glial and progenitor markers) by undifferentiated human MSCs (hMSCs) and in particular, we demonstrated that the neuronal markers III-tubulin and NeuN are expressed by a very high percentage of hMSCs, regardless of the number of culture passages and the culture conditions. Moreover, the neuronal markers III-tubulin and NeuN are still expressed by hMSCs after in vitro osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation. On the other hand, chondrogenically differentiated hMSCs are negative for these markers. Our findings suggest that the expression of neuronal markers could be common to a wide range of cellular types and not exclusive for neuronal lineages. Therefore, the expression of neuronal markers alone is not sufficient to demonstrate the differentiation of MSCs towards the neuronal phenotype. Functional properties analysis is also required.

Dermal Substitutes Support the Growth of Human Skin-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: Potential Tool for Skin Regeneration

“…Both were also reported in MSCs [19] [20]; [21]. Interestingly, similar to some brain tumor cell lines [16], we detected in some SD-MSCs the presence of Nestin by nuclear staining, which suggests the possible involvement of gene expression.…”

Pericyte Dynamics during Angiogenesis: New Insights from New Identities

“…Cultured human brain-derived pericytes express class III β-tubulin in vitro (Figure 5). Given that MSCs in culture also express class III β-tubulin [83] and that pericytes and MSCs share phenotypic similarities, this result might have been expected and we have also observed class III β-tubulin expression by human-derived placental pericytes in vitro (data not shown). Considering pericyte class III β-tubulin expression in vitro together with our observations of class III β-tubulin up regulation by pericytes in adult rat mesenteric microvascular networks during angiogenesis (Figure 4; [80]) raises questions regarding 1) cell state in vitro and 2) the potential differences between pericytes in vivo versus in vitro .…”

“…The positive expression of class III β-tubulin by tumor cells and pericytes in vitro suggests a potential issue with using just class III β-tubulin expression as an indicator of a neural phenotype. For example, stem cell differentiation into nerves has been confirmed, in part, based on class III β-tubulin expression [82, 83]. However, our observations show that class III β-tubulin can be expressed by pericytes and is not nerve specific.…”

HEK293 in cell biology and cancer research: phenotype, karyotype, tumorigenicity, and stress-induced genome-phenotype evolution

“…For example, the human breast cancer cell lines co-express the neuronal, epithelial, and melanocytic differentiation markers (Zhang et al, 2010). The human mesenchymal stem cells express neuronal markers in the absence of any differentiative agent (Foudah et al, 2014) as well as after osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation (Foudah et al, 2013). Moreover, transformation of the amniotic fluid-derived cells by Ad5 E1 gene resulted in establishment of cytokeratin and pan-cadherin immunopositive cell line with epithelioid phenotype.…”