Human Plancenta Mesenchymal Stem Cells: New Approach in Wound Healing

Placental tissue draws great interest as a source of cells for regenerative medicine because of the phenotypic plasticity of many of the cell types isolated from this tissue. Furthermore, placenta, which is involved in maintaining fetal tolerance, contains cells that display immunomodulatory properties. These two features could prove useful for future cell therapy‐based clinical applications. Placental tissue is readily available and easily procured without invasive procedures, and its use does not elicit ethical debate. Numerous reports describing stem cells from different parts of the placenta, using nearly as numerous isolation and characterization procedures, have been published. We isolated adherent cells from Collagenase‐digested term placentas and established two clones by limiting dilution. We examined these cells for morphology, surface markers, gene expression patterns, and differentiation potential and found that they expressed several stem cell markers, hematopoietic / endothelial cell–related genes, and organ‐specific genes, as determined by fluorescence‐activated cell sorter analysis. They also showed osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation potentials under appropriate conditions. We suggest that placenta‐derived cells have multilineage differentiation potential similar to MSCs in terms of morphology, cell‐surface antigen expression, and gene expression patterns. The placenta may prove to be a useful source of MSCs.

Keywords:

Placenta , Mesenchymal Stem Cells , Wound Healing