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TRANSLATIONAL AND CLINICAL RESEARCH: MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS SERIES

Concise Review: Human Umbilical Cord Stroma with Regard to the Source of Fetus-Derived Stem Cells

Laboratory for Stem Cell Research, Department of Histology and Embryology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey

Key Words. Umbilical cord • Mesenchymal stem cell • Differentiation • Stroma • Wharton's jelly

Correspondence: Alp Can, M.D., Department of Histology and Embryology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Sihhiye, Ankara 06100, Turkey. Telephone: +90 533 7136967; Fax: +90 312 3106370; e-mail: alpcan{at}medicine.ankara.edu.tr

Received June 5, 2007; accepted for publication July 27, 2007.
First published online in STEM CELLS EXPRESS   August 9, 2007.



Human umbilical cord (UC) has been a tissue of increasing interest in recent years. Many groups have shown the stem cell potency of stromal cells isolated from the human UC mesenchymal tissue, namely, Wharton's jelly. Since UC is a postnatal organ discarded after birth, the collection of cells does not require an invasive procedure with ethical concerns. Stromal cells, as the dominant cells of this fetus-derived tissue, possess multipotent properties between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. They bear a relatively higher proliferation rate and self-renewal capacity. Although they share common surface markers with bone marrow-derived MSCs, they also express certain embryonic stem cell markers, albeit in low levels. Without any spontaneous differentiation, they can be successfully differentiated into mature adipocytes, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, skeletal myocytes, cardiomyocytes, neurons, and endothelial cells. While causing no immunorejection reaction, they effectively function in vivo as dopaminergic neurons, myocytes, and endothelial cells. Given these characteristics, particularly the plasticity and developmental flexibility, UC stromal cells are now considered an alternative source of stem cells and deserve to be examined in long-term clinical trials. This review first aims to document the published findings so far regarding the nature of human UC stroma with special emphasis on the spatial distribution and functional structure of stromal cells and matrix, which serves as a niche for residing cells, and, secondly, to assess the in vitro and in vivo experiments in which differential stem cell potencies were evaluated.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Karahuseyinoglu, C. Kocaefe, D. Balci, E. Erdemli, and A. Can Functional Structure of Adipocytes Differentiated from Human Umbilical Cord Stroma-Derived Stem Cells Stem Cells, March 1, 2008; 26(3): 682 - 691. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]