Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
Eur J Histochem. 2012 Aug 29;56(3):e33. doi: 10.4081/ejh.2012.e33.
Amniotic epithelial cells (AECs) express Oct4, Nanog and Sox-2, which are necessary for maintaining the undifferentiated state of pluripotent stem cells. AECs additionally express CK19, which is a specific marker of epithelial cells, both in vivo and in vitro. In this research, we investigated the biological characteristics and potential for cell therapy of AECs from 6-day-old chicken embryos. We induced the AECs to differentiate into pancreatic islet-like cells (endoderm), adipocytes and osteoblasts (mesoderm) and neural-like cells (ectoderm), and used immunofluorescence and RT-PCR to detect the expression of AECs specific markers. To assess the differentiation capacity of AECs, passage 3 cells were induced to differentiate into adipocytes, osteoblasts, pancreatic islet-like cells and neural-like cells. The AEC markers, Oct4, Nanog, Sox-2 and CK19, were all positively expressed. Cloning efficiency decreased with increasing passage number. Passage 3 AECs were successfully induced to differentiate into pancreatic islet-like cells, osteoblasts, adipocytes, and neural-like cells. These results suggested that AECs isolated from chicken embryos exhibited the characteristics of the multipotent stem cells. AECs may therefore be ideal candidates for cellular transplantation therapy and tissue engineering.
羊膜上皮细胞（AECs）表达 Oct4、Nanog 和 Sox-2，这些蛋白对于维持多能干细胞的未分化状态是必需的。AECs 还在体内和体外表达 CK19，这是上皮细胞的特异性标志物。在这项研究中，我们研究了来自 6 日龄鸡胚的 AEC 的生物学特性和细胞治疗潜力。我们诱导 AEC 分化为胰岛样细胞（内胚层）、脂肪细胞和成骨细胞（中胚层）和神经样细胞（外胚层），并使用免疫荧光和 RT-PCR 检测 AEC 特异性标志物的表达。为了评估 AEC 的分化能力，将第 3 代细胞诱导分化为脂肪细胞、成骨细胞、胰岛样细胞和神经样细胞。AEC 标志物 Oct4、Nanog、Sox-2 和 CK19 均呈阳性表达。克隆效率随传代次数的增加而降低。第 3 代 AEC 成功诱导分化为胰岛样细胞、成骨细胞、脂肪细胞和神经样细胞。这些结果表明，从鸡胚中分离的 AEC 具有多能干细胞的特征。因此，AEC 可能是细胞移植治疗和组织工程的理想候选细胞。
