La Rocca Giampiero, Anzalone Rita, Corrao Simona, Magno Francesca, Loria Tiziana, Lo Iacono Melania, Di Stefano Antonino, Giannuzzi Pantaleo, Marasà Lorenzo, Cappello Francesco, Zummo Giovanni, Farina Felicia
Sezione di Anatomia Umana, Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via del Vespro 129, 90127, Palermo, Italy.
Histochem Cell Biol. 2009 Feb;131(2):267-82. doi: 10.1007/s00418-008-0519-3. Epub 2008 Oct 3.
The presence of multipotent cells in several adult and embryo-related tissues opened new paths for their use in regenerative medicine. Extraembryonic tissues such as umbilical cord are considered a promising source of stem cells, potentially useful in therapy. The characterization of cells from the umbilical cord matrix (Wharton's Jelly) and amniotic membrane revealed the presence of a population of mesenchymal-like cells, sharing a set of core-markers expressed by "mesenchymal stem cells". Several reports enlightened the differentiation capabilities of these cells, even if at times the lack of an extensive characterization of surface markers and immune co-stimulators expression revealed hidden pitfalls when in vivo transplantation was performed. The present work describes a novel isolation protocol for obtaining mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord matrix. These cells are clonogenic, retain long telomeres, can undergo several population doublings in vitro, and can be differentiated in mature mesenchymal tissues as bone and adipose. We describe for the first time that these cells, besides expressing all of the core-markers for mesenchymal stem cells, feature also the expression, at both protein and mRNA level, of tolerogenic molecules and markers of all the three main lineages, potentially important for both their differentiative potential as well as immunological features.
在几种成体组织和胚胎相关组织中发现多能细胞，为其在再生医学中的应用开辟了新途径。诸如脐带等胚外组织被认为是一种很有前景的干细胞来源，可能在治疗中发挥作用。对来自脐带基质（华通氏胶）和羊膜的细胞进行表征后发现，存在一群间充质样细胞，它们具有一组由“间充质干细胞”表达的核心标志物。一些报告揭示了这些细胞的分化能力，不过在进行体内移植时，有时由于缺乏对表面标志物和免疫共刺激分子表达的全面表征，会暴露出一些潜在问题。本研究描述了一种从脐带基质中获取间充质干细胞的新分离方法。这些细胞具有克隆形成能力，端粒较长，在体外能进行多次群体倍增，并且可以分化为成熟的间充质组织，如骨组织和脂肪组织。我们首次描述了这些细胞，除了表达间充质干细胞的所有核心标志物外，在蛋白质和mRNA水平还表达了耐受性分子以及所有三个主要谱系的标志物，这对于它们的分化潜能和免疫特性可能都很重要。
