title: Multipotent cells can be generated in vitro from several adult human organs (heart, liver, and bone marrow).
abstract: The aims of our study were to verify whether it was possible to generate in vitro, from different adult human tissues, a population of cells that behaved, in culture, as multipotent stem cells and if these latter shared common properties. To this purpose, we grew and cloned finite cell lines obtained from adult human liver, heart, and bone marrow and named them human multipotent adult stem cells (hMASCs). Cloned hMASCs, obtained from the 3 different tissues, expressed the pluripotent state-specific transcription factors Oct-4, NANOG, and REX1, displayed telomerase activity, and exhibited a wide range of differentiation potential, as shown both at a morphologic and functional level. hMASCs maintained a human diploid DNA content, and shared a common gene expression signature, compared with several somatic cell lines and irrespectively of the tissue of isolation. In particular, the pathways regulating stem cell self-renewal/maintenance, such as Wnt, Hedgehog, and Notch, were transcriptionally active. Our findings demonstrate that we have optimized an in vitro protocol to generate and expand cells from multiple organs that could be induced to acquire morphologic and functional features of mature cells even embryologically not related to the tissue of origin.
authors.affiliation: Centro Interdipartimentale Medicina Rigenerativa, University of Udine, Piazzale Santa Maria della Misericordia, 33100 Udine, Italy. beltrami@uniud.it
authors.forename: Antonio P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Beltrami
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cesselli
authors.forename: Natascha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bergamin
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marcon
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rigo
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Puppato
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: D'Aurizio
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verardo
authors.forename: Silvano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piazza
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pignatelli
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poz
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Baccarani
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Damiani
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fanin
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mariuzzi
authors.forename: Nicoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Finato
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Masolini
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Burelli
authors.forename: Ottorino
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Belluzzi
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Carlo A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Beltrami
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002469:Cell Separation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002999:Clone Cells; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis