Abstract
In the promising field of regenerative medicine, human perinatal stem cells are of great interest as potential stem cells with clinical applications. Perinatal stem cells could be isolated from normally discarded human placentae, which are an ideal cell source in terms of availability, the fewer number of ethical concerns, less DNA damage, and so on. Numerous studies have demonstrated that some of the placenta-derived cells possess stem cell characteristics like pluripotent differentiation ability, particularly in amniotic epithelial (AE) cells. Term human amniotic epithelium contains a relatively large number of stem cell marker-positive cells as an adult stem cell source. In this review, we introduce a model theory of why so many AE cells possess stem cell characteristics. We also describe previous work concerning the therapeutic applications and discuss the pluripotency of the AE cells and potential pitfalls for amnion-derived stem cell research.
Highlights
The emerging field of regenerative medicine requires a reliable cell source in addition to biomaterial scaffolds and cytokine/growth factors
These cells were transplanted into immunodeficient mice, and human α-1 antitrypsin was detected circulating in the serum of recipient mice, and this confirmed that the engrafted human AE (hAE) cells function as hepatocytes in mouse liver
We introduced a model theory that may explain why so many cells with stem cell features are present in the amnion
Summary
The emerging field of regenerative medicine requires a reliable cell source in addition to biomaterial scaffolds and cytokine/growth factors. The changes of gene expression and cell morphology of AE cells in these experiments demonstrated the AE cell plasticity that is induced by exposure to exogenous growth factors or chemicals At present, it has not been confirmed whether a single pluripotent amniotic stem cell differentiates into all three germ layers or whether there are various lineage-committed multipotent cells in the AE cell population. The AE-derived hepatocyte-like cells expressed late-phase hepatic differentiation markers, including various inducible cytohrome P450 genes, which are essential for drug metabolism as functional hepatocytes These cells were transplanted into immunodeficient mice, and human α-1 antitrypsin was detected circulating in the serum of recipient mice, and this confirmed that the engrafted hAE cells function as hepatocytes in mouse liver. Unlike in ES cells or iPS cells, leakage concerns at the selection step will not be a critical issue
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