Induction of Umbilical Cord Blood Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Neuron-Like Cells In Vitro

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in human umbilical cord blood are multipotent stem cells that differ from hematopoietic stem cells. They can differentiate in vitro into mesenchymal cells such as osteoblasts and adipocytes. However, differentiation into nonmesenchymal cells has not been demonstrated. Here, we report the isolation, purification, expansion, and differentiation of human umbilical cord blood MSCs into neurocytes in vitro. Cord blood samples were allowed to drain from the end of the cord into glass bottles with 20 U/mL preservative-free heparin. MSCs were isolated from human umbilical cord blood, purified, and expanded in Mesencult medium. Surface antigens of MSCs were analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). MSC passages 2,5, and 8 were induced to differentiate into neuron-like cells. Neurofilament (NF) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) were detected by immunohistochemistry staining. Special Nissl bodies were observed by histochemical analysis. The results showed that 6.6 x 10(5) primary MSCs were expanded for 10 passages to obtain 9.9 x 10(8) MSCs, an increase of approximately 1.5 x 10(3)-fold. FACS results showed that the MSCs did not express antigens CD34, CD11a, and CD11b and expressed CD29 and CD71, an expression pattern identical to that of human bone marrow-derived MSCs. Induction results indicated that approximately 70% of the cells exhibited a typical neuron-like phenotype. Immunohistochemistry staining suggested that induced MSCs of different passages expressed NF and NSE. Special Nissl bodies were obvious in the neuron-like cells. These results suggest that MSCs in human umbilical cord blood are capable of differentiating into neuron-like cells in vitro.

Tissue engineering: strategies, stem cells and scaffolds

“…The analysis of their gene expression profile reveals similarities to BM-MSCs (Jeong et al 2005), with an ability to differentiate into adipocytes, osteoblasts (Lee et al 2004), hepatocytes (Kang et al 2006) and neuronal-like cells (Hou et al 2003).…”

Transplantation of umbilical cord–derived mesenchymal stem cells as a novel strategy to protect the central nervous system: technical aspects, preclinical studies, and clinical perspectives

“…Thus, they display immune-privilege properties (52)(53)(54)(55), have been shown to be well tolerated in allogeneic transplantation experiments (56,57), and can be differentiated into cells of mesodermal origin such as bone, cartilage, and adipose tissue (58). Moreover, hUC-MSCs cultured in neural induction medium develop neural morphologies and express neural markers such as Nestin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and NeuN (5,46,59,60), suggesting that they have great potential for cell-based therapies in the context of central nervous system diseases.…”

Fibroblast growth factor-4 and hepatocyte growth factor induce differentiation of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes

“…It was reported that HUCB-derived MSCs could differentiate into mesoderm cells such as osteoblasts, adipocytes [21] , neuron-like cells [19,22] , and cardiomyocytes [23,24] . Schwartz et al [14] .…”