title: Self-renewal and multipotency coexist in a long-term cultured adult rat dental pulp stem cell line: an exception to the rule?
abstract: The stemness state is characterized by self-renewal and differentiation properties. However, stem cells are not able to preserve these characteristics in long-term culture because of the intrinsic fragility of their phenotype easily undergoing senescence or neoplastic transformation. Furthermore, although isolated from the same original tissue using similar protocols, adult stem cells can display dissimilar phenotypes and important cell clone/species contamination. Finally, the lack of a clear standardization contributes to complicate the comprehension about the stemness condition. In this context, cell lines displaying a particularly stable phenotype must be identified to define one or multiple benchmarks against which other stem cell lines could be reliably assessed. The present paper demonstrates that it is possible to isolate from the rat dental pulp a stem cell line (MUR-1) that does not display neoplastic transformation in long-term culture. MUR-1 cells stably express a broad range of stemness markers and are able to differentiate into adipogenic, osteogenic, chondrogenic, neurogenic, and cardiomyogenic lineages independently of the culture passages. Moreover, serial in vitro passages have not changed their immunophenotype, proliferation capacity, or differentiation potential. The uniqueness of these characteristics candidates MUR-1 as a model to reliably improve the understanding of the mechanisms governing the stem cell fate in the same as well as in other stem cell populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Sprio
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Scipio
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raimondo
authors.forename: Paolina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Salamone
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pagliari
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pagliari
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Folino
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Forte
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geuna
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Di Nardo
authors.forename: Giovanni N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Berta
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D003782:Dental Pulp / Q000166:cytology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar