Obtención de células madre mesenquimales a partir de cordones umbilicales procedentes de un programa altruista de donación de sangre de cordón

Introduction

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) offer a great potential for regenerative medicine due to their unique properties of self-renewal, high plasticity and modulation of immune response. Although the original source of MSC has been bone marrow, there is a clear need for a source of MSC as an “off-the-shelf” product for quick and effective treatment. One of the first candidates was the umbilical cord blood (UCB) but the poor recovery discourages its use.

Material and methods

In the present paper, we tested umbilical cord (UC) tissue as a source for obtaining MSC. All the samples were obtained from donations included in our UCB altruistic procurement program.

Results

Our results showed that is possible to obtain MSC from UC (hUC-MSC) with a 100% success rate by using a combination of mechanical fragmentation and enzymatic digestion. The MSC thus obtained show a phenotype very similar to that observed in the MSC of bone marrow origin: CD45⁻CD31⁻CD34⁻HLA-DR-CD⁻105⁺CD90⁺CD73⁺. In addition, we have demonstrated that hUC-MSC, like the MSC from bone marrow, are able to differentiate into osteoblasts and adipocytes, and also exert a suppressive effect on the proliferative capacity of peripheral lymphocytes stimulated with phytohaemagglutinin.

Conclusions

We conclude that it is possible to implement a structured program of MSC derivation by using the same logistics that are used to obtain UCB. This opens the way to developing a biobank of human MSC that could be useful for research and clinical use.