Mesenchymal stem cells differentiated into chondrocyte—Like cells

Abstract

Among the stem cells contained in human amniotic fluid (hAF), the human amniotic fluid derived-mesenchymal stem cells (hAF-MSCs) are derived from fetal membranes and tissues that are produced during fetal development. The aim of this study was to characterize the ‘stem-ness’ properties of hAF-MSCs and their potency with regard to the chondrogenic differentiations using the scaffold cultivation method. This study revealed that the easily accessed and isolated MSCs were highly cell prolific and there were fewer ethical concerns regarding their usage. The MSCs were studied through the use of the alamar blue technique. In addition, after cell isolation, hAF-MSCs displayed typical MSCs morphologies including MSCs biomarker characteristics and immune privilege properties (CD44, CD73, CD90, CD105 and HLA-ABC) through immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. Interestingly, this result indicated a negative expression when using the C-Kit (CD117, tyrosine kinase receptor type III ligand for cytokine stem cell factor). This expression can be found at the cell’s surface of the amniotic fluid-derived stem cells (AFSCs). This study found evidence that hAF-MSCs had the ability to differentiate the cells into the chondrogenic lineage by exhibiting chondrogenic related genes and proteins (SOX9, AGC, COL2A1 and COMP) through RT-qPCR, immunoenzymatic assays and immunofluorescence analysis. Furthermore, MSCs presented sGAGs accumulation, which was confirmed by histological analysis and SEM. Therefore, this study showed that the MSCs characteristics are contained in AF and are of significant value for further research. It appears that MSCs possess the potential for use in treatments that would necessitate the use of regenerative cell therapy.