Human First-Trimester Fetal MSC Express Pluripotency Markers and Grow Faster and Have Longer Telomeres Than Adult MSC

Abstract

The biological properties of stem cells are key to the success of cell therapy, for which MSC are promising candidates. Although most therapeutic applications to date have used adult bone marrow MSC, increasing evidence suggests that MSC from neonatal and mid-gestational fetal tissues are more plastic and grow faster. Fetal stem cells have been isolated earlier in development, from first-trimester blood and hemopoietic organs, raising the question of whether they are biologically closer to embryonic stem cells and thus have advantages over adult bone marrow MSC. In this study, we show that human first-trimester fetal blood, liver, and bone marrow MSC but not adult MSC express the pluripotency stem cell markers Oct-4, Nanog, Rex-1, SSEA-3, SSEA-4, Tra-1-60, and Tra-1-81. In addition, fetal MSC, irrespective of source, had longer telomeres (p < .001), had greater telomerase activity (p < .01), and expressed more human telomerase reverse transcriptase (p < .01). Fetal MSC were also more readily expandable and senesced later in culture than their adult counterparts (p < .01). Compared with adult MSC, first-trimester fetal tissues constitute a source of MSC with characteristics that appear advantageous for cell therapy. STEM CELLS 2007;25:646 -654

Intestinal Stem Cell Organoid Transplantation Generates Neomucosa in Dogs

“…Evidence to support this assumption for enterocytes is sparse, but Guillot et al has recently shown that fetal mesenchymal stem cells express more pluripotency markers, have longer telomeres, and are more readily expandable and senesce later in culture than their adult counterparts. 28,29 . The present pilot study has additional limitations since the autotransplantation group is in other aspects not comparable to the allotransplantation group.…”

Potential of Human Fetal Chorionic Stem Cells for the Treatment of Osteogenesis Imperfecta

“…Cells were stained with primary antibodies (listed in Supplementary Table S1; Supplementary Data are available online at www.liebertpub.com/scd) then secondary antibody; donkey anti-mouse or anti-rabbit IgG ( Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories), before being mounted in VectaShield labeled with DAPI (Vector Labs) [24]. Fluorescence confocal laser scanning microscopy images were collected on a Leica TCS SP5 (X1000 PL APO oil objective).…”

Hematopoietic Microenvironment in the Fetal Liver: Roles of Different Cell Populations

“…MSCs of the fetal liver have certain distinctive features, compared to such cells from other organs. Thus, they show higher proliferative activity than MSCs from the adult bone marrow [59,60], but their osteogenic and adipogenic potential is lower [61]. With respect to osteogenic capacity, they are also inferior to MSCs from other fetal organs [62,63].…”