Department of Cardio-thoracic surgery, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Department of Urology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Science, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
J Cell Mol Med. 2021 Dec;25(23):10869-10878. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.16916. Epub 2021 Nov 1.
Tissue engineering (TE) of long tracheal segments is conceptually appealing for patients with inoperable tracheal pathology. In tracheal TE, stem cells isolated from bone marrow or adipose tissue have been employed, but the ideal cell source has yet to be determined. When considering the origin of stem cells, cells isolated from a source embryonically related to the trachea may be more similar. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of isolating progenitor cells from pleura and pericard as an alternative cells source for tracheal tissue engineering. Porcine progenitor cells were isolated from pleura, pericard, trachea and adipose tissue and expanded in culture. Isolated cells were characterized by PCR, RNA sequencing, differentiation assays and cell survival assays and were compared to trachea and adipose-derived progenitor cells. Progenitor-like cells were successfully isolated and expanded from pericard and pleura as indicated by gene expression and functional analyses. Gene expression analysis and RNA sequencing showed a stem cell signature indicating multipotency, albeit that subtle differences between different cell sources were visible. Functional analysis revealed that these cells were able to differentiate towards chondrogenic, osteogenic and adipogenic lineages. Isolation of progenitor cells from pericard and pleura with stem cell features is feasible. Although functional differences with adipose-derived stem cells were limited, based on their gene expression, pericard- and pleura-derived stem cells may represent a superior autologous cell source for cell seeding in tracheal tissue engineering.
组织工程（TE）对于无法手术治疗的气管病变患者来说，是一个具有吸引力的概念。在气管 TE 中，已经使用了从骨髓或脂肪组织中分离出来的干细胞，但尚未确定理想的细胞来源。在考虑干细胞的起源时，从与气管胚胎来源相关的来源中分离出来的细胞可能更相似。在这项研究中，我们研究了从胸膜和心包中分离祖细胞作为气管组织工程替代细胞来源的可行性。从胸膜、心包、气管和脂肪组织中分离出猪祖细胞，并在培养中进行扩增。通过 PCR、RNA 测序、分化实验和细胞存活实验对分离的细胞进行了鉴定，并与气管和脂肪来源的祖细胞进行了比较。基因表达和功能分析表明，祖细胞样细胞可成功地从心包和胸膜中分离和扩增。基因表达分析和 RNA 测序显示出干细胞特征，表明多能性，尽管不同细胞来源之间存在细微差异。功能分析表明，这些细胞能够向软骨、成骨和成脂谱系分化。从具有干细胞特征的心包和胸膜中分离祖细胞是可行的。尽管与脂肪来源的干细胞存在功能差异，但基于其基因表达，心包和胸膜来源的干细胞可能代表气管组织工程中细胞接种的更好的自体细胞来源。
