Purification and plasticity of human cord blood mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

Human cord blood is well known to contain hemapoetic stem cells capable of differentiating into blood related cell types. However, it is possible to derive another type of stem cell, referred to as a stromal, or in this study, mesenchymal stem cells, which are capable of producing other differentiated cell types which can include fat, muscle, bone and cartilage. It has also become apparent that neural cells can be derived from mesenchymal stem cells taken from bone marrow, another source like cord blood, of both hemapoetic and mesenchymal stem cells. Recently, Sanchez‐Ramos and coworkers published a study demonstrating that mesenchymal stem cells from total nucleated cord blood differentiate into cells expressing neural antigens. This work indicated the potential of this starting material as a valuable therapeutic source of human neural progenitors. Derivation and definition of these cord blood derived neural cells is unclear since the antigenic characterization of the cord blood mesenchymal stem cells still remains unknown. In this study we are using stem cell antigens such as CD34, CD90, CD117, CD133, to identify the cellular pool of cord blood mesenchymal stem cells and purify them using positive magnetic bead selection. Each population will be antigenically tested for their ability to differentiate into neural cells using defined culture conditions previously used to generate neural cells from multipotent starting material such as; ES cells; bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; and CNS‐derived multipotent neural stem cells.