title: Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) - a promising new candidate for use in preclinical and clinical selection of pluripotent very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSEL SCs) of high long-term repopulating hematopoietic potential.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the field of stem cells (SCs) biology there is great need for a universal marker that can effectively identify the rare populations of SCs in order to characterize and isolate them for research and therapeutic purposes. In line with this idea, the measurement of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity shows promising potential as a common marker for the identification of SCs. Recently discovered very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSEL SCs) have a pluripotent nature and high long-term repopulating hematopoietic potential. The aim of the present study was to determine whether VSEL SCs isolated from umbilical cord blood (CB) and different murine organs express high ALDH activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  To address this issue, 12 CB units were analyzed by employing flow cytometry to detect the following populations: (i) CXCR4(+)/Lin(-)/CD45(-)/ALDH(high), (ii) CD34(+)/Lin(-)/CD45(-)/ALDH(high) and (iii) CD133(+)/Lin(-)/CD45(-)/ALDH(high). Additionally, selected organs from 16 5-week-old female inbred C57BL/6J mice and 16 7-month-old female C57BL/6J mice were analyzed for detection of the following populations: (i) Sca-1(+)/Lin(-)/CD45(-) and (ii) Sca-1(+)/Lin(-)/CD45(+). All these populations were assessed for ALDH activity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that CB contains VSEL SCs with high ALDH activity. We also observed that ALDH(high) cells constitute a modest percentage of VSEL SCs present in selected murine organs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrated that CB and adult murine organs possess a subpopulation of ALDH(high) VSEL SCs. Above all, the observed high level of ALDH activity can be considered a functional marker of organ-derived pluripotent SCs and allows for simple, efficient isolation of cells with primitive features for their utility in targeted cell therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Pathology, Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland. edyta.paczkowska@sci.pam.szczecin.pl
authors.forename: Edyta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paczkowska
authors.forename: Milosz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawa
authors.forename: Patrycja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klos
authors.forename: Marzena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Staniszewska
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sienko
authors.forename: Elzbieta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dabkowska
mesh_terms: D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology*; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006410:Hematopoiesis; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D000444:Aldehyde Dehydrogenase