title: Minced umbilical cord fragments as a source of cells for orthopaedic tissue engineering: an in vitro study.
abstract: A promising approach for musculoskeletal repair and regeneration is mesenchymal-stem-cell- (MSC-)based tissue engineering. The aim of the study was to apply a simple protocol based on mincing the umbilical cord (UC), without removing any blood vessels or using any enzymatic digestion, to rapidly obtain an adequate number of multipotent UC-MSCs. We obtained, at passage 1 (P1), a mean value of 4, 2 × 10(6) cells (SD 0,4) from each UC. At immunophenotypic characterization, cells were positive for CD73, CD90, CD105, CD44, CD29, and HLA-I and negative for CD34 and HLA-class II, with a subpopulation negative for both HLA-I and HLA-II. Newborn origin and multilineage potential toward bone, fat, cartilage, and muscle was demonstrated. Telomere length was similar to that of bone-marrow (BM) MSCs from young donors. The results suggest that simply collecting UC-MSCs at P1 from minced umbilical cord fragments allows to achieve a valuable population of cells suitable for orthopaedic tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University of Turin, Mauriziano Hospital, Largo Turati 62, 10128 Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marmotti
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mattia
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bruzzone
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Buttiglieri
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Risso
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Bonasia
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blonna
authors.forename: F
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authors.lastname: Castoldi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: C
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authors.lastname: Zanini
authors.forename: E
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authors.lastname: Ercole
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authors.lastname: Defabiani
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tarella
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Peretti