| Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can self-renew, are multipotent cells and can differentiate into many different cells under certain induction conditions. MSCs are considered as ideal cells for tissue engineering.In this study, umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs) were induced to differentiate into islet-like cells and compared with bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs). UC-MSCs showed significant higher proliferation, compared with BM-MSCs. During pancreatic induction, UC-MSCs formed larger islet-like cell clusters than BM-MSCs, indicating that UC-MSCs could be more efficiently induced into islet-like cells. Immunofluorecent analysis showed that the expression of pancreatic cell specific transcription factor PDX-1 was much higher in differentiated UC-MSCs than in differentiated BM-MSCs. FACS study demonstrated that percentage of differentiated UC-MSCs expressing another pancreatic cell specific marker C-peptide was also higher than differentiated BM-MSCs, 53.3% and 30.9% respectively. Radioimmunoassay revealed that after induction for 3 days, differentiated UC-MSCs secreted more insulin than differentiated BM-MSCs, 33.7 mIU/L and 25.5 mIU/L respectively. In addition, in comparison with BM-MSCs, UC-MSCs can be obtaind more easily. Because UC-MSCs are isolated from fetus of incompletely developed immune system and do not express some immune-related proteins, they may not be rejected if used as engineered tissue and this is very important for tissue engineering.In summary, UC-MSCs have higher proliferation capacity and greater pancreatic differentiation potential than BM-MSCs. In addition, UC-MSCs can be obtained more easily and are less likely rejected if they are implanted as engineered tissues. Therefore, UC-MSCs are more suitable for pancreatic tissue engineering. These results demonstrated that UC-MSCs were good cells for pancreatic differentiation and can help the treatment of type I diabetes. |
PDF Full Text Request