Human Umbilical Cord Blood Progenitors: The Potential of These Hematopoietic Cells to Become Neural

¹ Center of Excellence for Aging & Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
² The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiogical Science, Institute of Cell engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
³ Center of Excellence for Aging & Brain Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, University of South Florida and James A. Haley VA Hospital, Tampa, Florida

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nchen1{at}hsc.usf.edu.

	Abstract

The mononuclear fraction from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) contains a significant number of stem/progenitor cells that in theory could become any cell in the body, including neurons. Taking into consideration that "transdifferentiation" would be a very rare event and also knowing that overlapping genetic programs for hemato- and neuropoiesis exist, we undertook a characterization of the HUCB mononuclear fraction, including analysis of cellular subpopulations and their morphology, cell viability, proliferation and expression of neural and hematopoietic antigens. Two cell populations were apparent - adherent and floating fractions. The adherent fraction was mainly lymphocytes (53%) expressing hematopoietic antigens. Upon replate, the floating population had many cells that expressed stem cell antigens. More of the cells in this subfraction expressed neural proteins. Neurotrophin receptors, trkB and trkC, were present in both cell fractions, although expression was higher in the floating fraction. Our initial characterization suggests that a subpopulation of cells exists within the HUCB mononuclear fraction that appears to have the potential to become neural cells which could then be used in the development of cell-based therapies for brain injuries and diseases.