Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering with Human Umbilical Cord mesenchymal Stromal Cells

Abstract

Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) hold tremendous promise for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, yet with so many sources of MSCs, what are the primary criteria for selecting leading candidates? Ideally, the cells will be multipotent, inexpensive, lack donor site morbidity, donor materials should be readily available in large numbers, immunocompatible, politically benign and expandable in vitro for several passages. Bone marrow MSCs do not meet all of these criteria and neither do embryonic stem cells. However, a promising new cell source is emerging in tissue engineering that appears to meet these criteria: MSCs derived from Wharton's jelly of umbilical cord MSCs. Exposed to appropriate conditions, umbilical cord MSCs can differentiate in vitro along several cell lineages such as the chondrocyte, osteoblast, adipocyte, myocyte, neuronal, pancreatic or hepatocyte lineages. In animal models, umbilical cord MSCs have demonstrated in vivo differentiation ability and promising immunocompatibility with host organs/tissues, even in xenotransplantation. In this article, we address their cellular characteristics, multipotent differentiation ability and potential for tissue engineering with an emphasis on musculoskeletal tissue engineering. Keywords differentiation; musculoskeletal; regenerative medicine; umbilical cord stroma An ideal cell source for tissue engineering should satisfy requirements including ease of access, sufficient cell number and immunocompatibility. Mature autologous cells have commonly been used in previous studies, owing to the advantages of already being differentiated and immunocompatible. In contrast to mature autologous cells, embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are a major area of contemporary research interest, and offer significant †

Wharton's Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells as Off-The-Shelf Cellular Therapeutics: A Closer Look into their Regenerative and Immunomodulatory Properties

“…Although the expression and synthesis of Collagen II and expression of pro-chondrogenic markers like Sox9, Runx2 was lower than BMMSCs in in vitro assays WJMSCs seem to be more compatible with tissue engineering principles in vivo for osteochondral regeneration [38].…”

Effect of diabetic osteoblasts on osteogenic differentiation of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells

“…HUMSCs have been shown to have a high proliferative potential, differentiate into an osteogenic phenotype 15 , and hold tremendous promise for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine 16 . As for delayed fracture healing in patients with diabetes, and chronic hyperglycemia that can modulate osteoblast gene expression 17 , whether diabetic osteoblasts have a promoting function in HUMSCs osteogenesis has not been studied.…”

Umbilical cord as a mesenchymal stem cell source for treating joint pathologies

“…MSCs derived from Wharton's jelly were isolated using their adherence to plastic and characterized by flow cytometry, looking for cells positive for STRO1, OCT3/4 and SSEA-4, as well as those positive for the classic MSC-markers, CD44, CD73, CD90, Ki67, CD105 and CD106, and negative for CD34 and CD45 [29][30][31][32] (Figure 1). These MSCs were differentiated towards musculoskeletal tissue [33] and CD10 positive cells that displayed contractile properties [34] . Wharton's jelly MSCs are also candidates for β cell regeneration, utilizing their immune response inhibiting benefits for treatment of type 1 diabetes [35] .…”