title: Neural differentiation and potential use of stem cells from the human umbilical cord for central nervous system transplantation therapy.
abstract: The human umbilical cord is a rich source of autologous stem and progenitor cells. Interestingly, subpopulations of these, particularly mesenchymal-like cells from both cord blood and the cord stroma, exhibited a potential to be differentiated into neuron-like cells in culture. Umbilical cord blood stem cells have demonstrated efficacy in reducing lesion sizes and enhancing behavioral recovery in animal models of ischemic and traumatic central nervous system (CNS) injury. Recent findings also suggest that neurons derived from cord stroma mesenchymal cells could alleviate movement disorders in hemiparkinsonian animal models. We review here the neurogenic potential of umbilical cord stem cells and discuss possibilities of their exploitation as an alternative to human embryonic stem cells or neural stem cells for transplantation therapy of traumatic CNS injury and neurodegenerative diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Choon Bing
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: Yih-Cherng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Liou
authors.forename: Bor Luen
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000166:cytology; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D036101:Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D014470:Umbilical Cord / Q000166:cytology / Q000637:transplantation*