Amniotic Membrane-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Research Articles

Objective Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been considered as an ideal source of stem cells because of low immunogenicity and availability of autologous cells. Although it has been reported that amniotic membrane contains MSC, the difference between amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AMSC) and MSC isolated from other tissues is still not clear. This study was designated to compare the characteristics and gene expression profi le of human AMSCs (hAMSC) and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADSC). Methods MSC were cultured from human amniotic membranes and adipose tissue by enzyme digestion. We compared the growth rate, surface marker expression, differentiation potential to adipogenic and osteogenic lineages, and gene expression of hAMSC with those of hADSC. Results hAMSC had growth rate and surface marker expression similar with hADSC. However, cyclopamine inhibited hAMSC proliferation in a dose-dependent manner without affecting hADSC proliferation. hAMSC showed lower differentiation potential to adipogenic and osteogenic lineages and lower in vivo tumor growth promoting effect in lung cancer cells xenotransplantion model of nude mouse than hADSC. Gene expression analysis using microarray revealed that many genes to be expressed differentially between hAMSC and hADSC are related to development and differentiation processes. Conclusion These fi ndings indicate that hAMSC have different characteristics with hADSC, and that to use MSC isolated from different sources according to therapeutic purposes may provide more promising results in clinical trials than general use of MSC from a specifi c source.

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