Isolation of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells from umbilical cord blood

• Published in: Blood 2004-03, Vol.103 (5), p.1669-1675
• Main Authors: Lee, Oscar K., Kuo, Tom K., Chen, Wei-Ming, Lee, Kuan-Der, Hsieh, Shie-Liang, Chen, Tain-Hsiung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adipocytes - cytology; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Animal cells; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Bone marrow, stem cells transplantation. Graft versus host reaction; Calcium - metabolism; Cell Culture Techniques - methods; Cell Differentiation; Cell Lineage; Cell Separation - methods; Chondrocytes - metabolism; Establishment of new cell lines, improvement of cultural methods, mass cultures; Eukaryotic cell cultures; Fetal Blood - cytology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Immunophenotyping; Lipoproteins, LDL - metabolism; Medical sciences; Mesoderm - cytology; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Stem Cells - cytology; Time Factors; Transfusions. Complications. Transfusion reactions. Cell and gene therapy; Umbilical Veins - cytology
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood-2003-05-1670

It is well accepted that umbilical cord blood has been a source for hematopoietic stem cells. However, controversy exists as to whether cord blood can serve as a source of mesenchymal stem cells, which can differentiate into cells of different connective tissue lineages such as bone, cartilage, and fat, and little success has been reported in the literature about the isolation of such cells from cord blood. Here we report a novel method to obtain single cell-derived, clonally expanded mesenchymal stem cells that are of multilineage differentiation potential by negative immunoselection and limiting dilution. The immunophenotype of these clonally expanded cells is consistent with that reported for bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Under appropriate induction conditions, these cells can differentiate into bone, cartilage, and fat. Surprisingly, these cells were also able to differentiate into neuroglial- and hepatocyte-like cells under appropriate induction conditions and, thus, these cells may be more than mesenchymal stem cells as evidenced by their ability to differentiate into cell types of all 3 germ layers. In conclusion, umbilical cord blood does contain mesenchymal stem cells and should not be regarded as medical waste. It can serve as an alternative source of mesenchymal stem cells to bone marrow.