Department of Histology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
J Cell Physiol. 2010 Jun;223(3):640-7. doi: 10.1002/jcp.22062.
Human Wharton's jelly stem cells (HWJSC) emerged as a potential source of viable cells for use in tissue engineering. In this work, we have analyzed the transdifferentiation capabilities of HWJSC towards transdifferentiated endothelial-like cells (Tr-ELC) in order to establish the potential usefulness of these cells in vascular tissue engineering. Our results show that Tr-ELC became more polygonal and less proliferative than HWJSC, resembling the structure and proliferation rate of the endothelial cells. In addition, the markers of mesenchymal undifferentiation CD9, E-cad, PODXL, and SSEA-4 are downregulated in Tr-ELC, suggesting that these cells can be in the process of adult differentiation. Besides, RT-PCR and microarray analyses revealed that some genes with a role in defining the endothelial phenotype and structure are upregulated (VEGF-R1, EDF1, AAMP, CD31, CD34, CDH5, and ICAM2) or downregulated (VEGF) in Tr-ELC, although a number of genes related to relevant endothelial cell functions (CD36, ECE2, VWF, THBD, PGI2, ECE1, and ACE) did not change or were only partially induced. All this implies that HWJSC are able to efficiently transdifferentiate towards Tr-ELC at the phenotypical level following a hierarchical pattern of gene activation, with an earlier induction of morphological and phenotypical genes.
人牙髓干细胞（HWJSC）作为组织工程中可用的活细胞的潜在来源而出现。在这项工作中，我们分析了 HWJSC 向转化的内皮样细胞（Tr-ELC）的转分化能力，以确定这些细胞在血管组织工程中的潜在用途。我们的结果表明，Tr-ELC 比 HWJSC 变得更多边形和增殖能力更低，类似于内皮细胞的结构和增殖率。此外，间充质未分化标志物 CD9、E-cad、PODXL 和 SSEA-4 在 Tr-ELC 中下调，表明这些细胞可能处于成人分化过程中。此外，RT-PCR 和微阵列分析显示，一些与定义内皮表型和结构有关的基因在 Tr-ELC 中上调（VEGF-R1、EDF1、AAMP、CD31、CD34、CDH5 和 ICAM2）或下调（VEGF），尽管一些与相关内皮细胞功能有关的基因（CD36、ECE2、VWF、THBD、PGI2、ECE1 和 ACE）没有变化或仅部分诱导。所有这些都表明，HWJSC 能够在基因激活的层次结构上有效地向 Tr-ELC 进行表型水平的转分化，早期诱导形态和表型基因的诱导。
