title: Differentiation of Wharton's jelly primitive stromal cells into insulin-producing cells in comparison with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.
abstract: Primitive stromal cells can be isolated from umbilical cord Wharton's jelly (UC-PSCs). Umbilical cord can be easily obtained without causing pain to donors, and the procedure avoids ethical and technical issues. UC-PSCs are more primitive than mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from some other tissue sources. In this study, UC-PSCs were induced to differentiate into insulin-producing cells, and compared with bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) for their pancreatic differentiation potential. UC-PSCs showed significantly higher proliferation than BM-MSCs. During pancreatic induction, UC-PSCs formed larger islet-like cell clusters than BM-MSCs. Immunocytochemical analysis showed that higher expression of the pancreatic-specific transcription factor PDX-1 was detected in differentiated UC-PSCs than in differentiated BM-MSCs. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that the percentage of differentiated UC-PSCs expressing pancreatic-specific marker C-peptide was 72% higher than differentiated BM-MSCs. Radioimmunoassay revealed that differentiated UC-PSCs secreted significantly more insulin than differentiated BM-MSCs. These results demonstrated that UC-PSCs had higher pancreatic differentiation potential than BM-MSCs. Therefore, UC-PSCs are more suitable for pancreatic tissue engineering in the treatment of type I diabetes than BM-MSCs.
authors.affiliation: Multidisciplinary Research Center, Shantou University, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Li-Fang
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ni-Na
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yuan-Sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D010179:Pancreas / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism; D014470:Umbilical Cord / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; C084010:pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1 protein