Department for Applied Cell Biology, Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Steinbachstr. 17, 52074, Aachen, Germany.
Institute for Biological Information Processing, IBI-3, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Leo Brandtstrasse Station 71, 52425, Jülich, Germany.
Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2023 Aug;19(6):1870-1889. doi: 10.1007/s12015-023-10538-w. Epub 2023 Apr 24.
The healing of neuronal injuries is still an unachieved goal. Medicine-based therapies can only extend the survival of patients, but not finally lead to a healing process. Currently, a variety of stem cell-based tissue engineering developments are the subject of many research projects to bridge this gap. As yet, neuronal differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), embryonic cell lines, or neuronal stem cells could be accomplished and produce functional neuronally differentiated cells. However, clinical application of cells from these sources is hampered by ethical considerations. To overcome these hurdles numerous studies investigated the potential of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a potential stem cell source. Adult MSCs have been approved as cellular therapeutical products due to their regenerative potential and immunomodulatory properties. Only a few of these studies could demonstrate the capacity to differentiate MSCs into active firing neuron like cells. With this study we investigated the potential of Wharton's Jelly (WJ) derived stem cells and focused on the intrinsic pluripotent stem cell pool and their potential to differentiate into active neurons. With a comprehensive neuronal differentiation protocol comprised of mechanical and biochemical inductive cues, we investigated the capacity of spontaneously forming stem cell spheroids (SCS) from cultured WJ stromal cells in regard to their neuronal differentiation potential and compared them to undifferentiated spheroids or adherent MSCs. Spontaneously formed SCSs show pluripotent and neuroectodermal lineage markers, meeting the pre-condition for neuronal differentiation and contain a higher amount of cells which can be differentiated into cells whose functional phenotypes in calcium and voltage responsive electrical activity are similar to neurons. In conclusion we show that up-concentration of stem cells from WJ with pluripotent characteristics is a tool to generate neuronal cell replacement.
神经元损伤的修复仍然是一个尚未实现的目标。基于医学的治疗方法只能延长患者的存活时间,但不能最终导致愈合过程。目前,各种基于干细胞的组织工程开发是许多研究项目的主题,旨在弥补这一差距。尽管如此,诱导多能干细胞(iPS)、胚胎细胞系或神经干细胞的神经元分化已经可以实现,并产生具有功能性的神经元分化细胞。然而,由于伦理考虑,这些来源的细胞的临床应用受到阻碍。为了克服这些障碍,许多研究调查了成体间充质干细胞(MSCs)作为潜在干细胞来源的潜力。由于其再生潜力和免疫调节特性,成体 MSC 已被批准为细胞治疗产品。只有少数研究能够证明将 MSC 分化为具有活性的类似神经元的细胞的能力。在这项研究中,我们研究了 Wharton's Jelly(WJ)衍生干细胞的潜力,并专注于内在多能干细胞池及其分化为活性神经元的潜力。通过一个包含机械和生化诱导线索的综合神经元分化方案,我们研究了培养的 WJ 基质细胞中自发形成的干细胞球体(SCS)在其神经元分化潜力方面的能力,并将其与未分化的球体或贴壁 MSC 进行了比较。自发形成的 SCS 显示出多能性和神经外胚层谱系标志物,满足神经元分化的前提条件,并且包含更多可以分化为具有钙和电压反应性电活动的功能表型类似于神经元的细胞的细胞。总之,我们表明具有多能特性的 WJ 干细胞的浓缩是产生神经元细胞替代物的一种工具。