Amniotic fluid-derived stem cells for wound healing.

Perinatal tissues, such as placenta and umbilical cord contain a variety of somatic stem cell types, spanning from the largely used hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to the most recently described broadly multipotent epithelial and stromal cells. As perinatal derivatives (PnD), several of these cell types and related products provide an interesting regenerative potential for a variety of diseases. Within COST SPRINT Action, we continue our review series, revising and summarizing the modalities of action and proposed medical approaches using PnD products: cells, secretome, extracellular vesicles, and decellularized tissues...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Regenerative medicine is promising in wound healing. Exosomes derived from human amniotic fluid derived stem cells(hAFS) have become an important area of research for many diseases as a key paracrine factor,but its effects in wound healing remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the possible role and possible mechanisms of hAFS in skin wound healing. METHODS: hAFS were isolated from human amniotic fluid via routine amniocentesis...

Adult wound healing often results in fibrotic scarring that is caused by myofibroblast aggregation. Human amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFSCs) exhibit significantly anti-fibrotic scarring properties during wound healing. However, it is little known whether hAFSCs directly or indirectly (paracrine) contribute to this process. Using the full-thickness skin-wounded rats, we investigated the therapeutic potential of hAFSC-derived exosomes (hAFSC-exo). Our results showed that hAFSC-exo accelerated the wound healing rate and improved the regeneration of hair follicles, nerves, and vessels, as well as increased proliferation of cutaneous cells and the natural distribution of collagen during wound healing...

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are stromal-derived non-hematopoietic progenitor cells that reside in and can be expanded from various tissues sources of adult and neonatal origin, such as the bone marrow, umbilical cord, umbilical cord blood, adipose tissue, amniotic fluid, placenta, dental pulp and skin. The discovery of the immunosuppressing action of MSCs on T cells has opened new perspectives for their use as a therapeutic agent for immune-mediated disorders, including allergies. Atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic and relapsing skin disorder that affects up to 20% of children and up to 3% of adults worldwide, is characterized by pruritic eczematous lesions, impaired cutaneous barrier function, Th2 type immune hyperactivation and, frequently, elevation of serum immunoglobulin E levels...

BACKGROUND: Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with multilineage differentiation potential. They can be collected from bone marrow, fat, amniotic fluid, and teeth. Stem cell-based therapies have been widely used to treat multiple diseases, such as cardiac disease, and hematological disorders. The cells may also be beneficial for controlling the disease course and promoting tissue regeneration in oral and maxillofacial diseases. Oral-derived gingival mesenchymal stem cells are easy to access...

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cell-derived conditioned medium (MSC-CM) has emerged as a promising cell-free tool for restoring degenerative diseases and treating traumatic injuries. The present study describes the effect of selenium as a reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger and its additive effect with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on in vitro expansion of amniotic fluid (AF)-MSCs and the paracrine actions of AF-MSC-CM as well as the associated cellular and molecular mechanisms...

Caprine amniotic fluid (cAF) and bone marrow cells (cBM) were isolated, expanded and phenotypically characterized by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) specific cell surface markers. Both cell types were compared for multilineage differentiation potential by flow cytometry using specific antibodies against lineage specific markers. Furthermore, in vitro expanded cAF-MSCs showed higher expression of trophic factors viz. VEGF and TGF-β1 as compared to cBM-MSCs. Full-skin thickness excisional wounds created on either side of the dorsal midline (thoracolumbar) of New Zealand White rabbits were randomly assigned to subcutaneous injection of either fetal origin cAF-MSCs (n=4) or adult cBM-MSCs (n=4) or sterile PBS (control, n=4)...

This study was conducted to know the impact of cryopreservation on caprine fetal adnexa derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the basic stem cell characteristics. Gravid caprine uteri (2-3 months) were collected from local abattoir to derive (amniotic fluid [cAF], amniotic sac [cAS], Wharton's jelly [cWJ], and cord blood [cCB]) MSCs and expanded in vitro. Cells were cryopreserved at 3rd passage (P3) using 10% DMSO. Post-thaw viability and cellular properties were assessed. Cells were expanded to determine growth kinetics, tri-lineage differentiation, localization, and molecular expression of MSCs and pluripotency markers; thereafter, these cells were transplanted in the full-thickness (2 × 2cm(2) ) rat skin wound to determine their wound healing potential...

For many cellular therapies being evaluated in preclinical and clinical trials, the mechanisms behind their therapeutic effects appear to be the secretion of growth factors and cytokines, also known as paracrine activity. Often, delivered cells are transient, and half-lives of the growth factors that they secrete are short, limiting their long-term effectiveness. The goal of this study was to optimize a hydrogel system capable of in situ cell delivery that could sequester and release growth factors secreted from those cells after the cells were no longer present...

OBJECTIVE: Liver fibrosis results from the wound healing response to chronic liver damage. Advanced liver fibrosis results in cirrhosis and liver failure, and liver transplantation is often the only option for effective therapy; however, the shortage of available donor livers limits this treatment. Thus, new therapies for advanced liver fibrosis are essential. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Amniotic fluid contains an abundance of stem cells, which are derived from all three germ layers of the developing fetus...

In a previous study, we isolated human amniotic fluid (AF)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AF-MSCs) and utilized normoxic conditioned medium (AF-MSC-norCM) which has been shown to accelerate cutaneous wound healing. Because hypoxia enhances the wound healing function of mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium (MSC-CM), it is interesting to explore the mechanism responsible for the enhancement of wound healing function. In this work, hypoxia not only increased the proliferation of AF-MSCs but also maintained their constitutive characteristics (surface marker expression and differentiation potentials)...

Stem cells obtained from amniotic fluid show high proliferative capacity in culture and multilineage differentiation potential. Because of the lack of significant immunogenicity and the ability of the amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells to modulate the inflammatory response, we investigated whether they could augment wound healing in a mouse model of skin regeneration. We used bioprinting technology to treat full-thickness skin wounds in nu/nu mice. AFS cells and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were resuspended in fibrin-collagen gel and "printed" over the wound site...

Emerging evidence shows that different adult tissues of the human body harbour small amounts of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which have the potential to give a rise to all cell types of the specific tissue in which they reside. These cells were found in human adult bone marrow, muscle, fat, brain, cartilage, dental pulp, etc. Depending on the type of host tissue as well as age and state of the donor's health, the plasticity of MSCs can vary considerably. Previously accomplished research efforts have shown that adult MSCs have a broad therapeutic potential due to their ability to differentiate towards multiple adult cell types under appropriate conditions...

OBJECT: Human amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AFMSCs) have been shown to promote peripheral nerve regeneration. The expression of stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) in the injured nerve exerts a trophic effect by recruiting progenitor cells that promote nerve regeneration. In this study, the authors investigated the feasibility of intravenous administration of AFMSCs according to SDF-1α expression time profiles to facilitate neural regeneration in a sciatic nerve crush injury model...

Biomaterial scaffolds functionalized to stimulate endogenous repair mechanisms via the incorporation of osteogenic cues offer a potential alternative to bone grafting for the treatment of large bone defects. We first quantified the ability of a self-complementary adeno-associated viral vector encoding bone morphogenetic protein 2 (scAAV2.5-BMP2) to enhance human stem cell osteogenic differentiation in vitro. In two-dimensional culture, scAAV2.5-BMP2-transduced human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) displayed significant increases in BMP2 production and alkaline phosphatase activity compared with controls...

Stem/progenitor cells can be used to repair defects in the airway wall, resulting from e.g., tumors, trauma, tissue reactions following long-time intubations, or diseases that are associated with epithelial damage. Several potential sources of cells for airway epithelium have been identified. These can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of endogenous progenitor cells present in the respiratory tract. This group can be subdivided according to location into (a) a ductal cell type in the submucosal glands of the proximal trachea, (b) basal cells in the intercartilaginous zones of the lower trachea and bronchi, (c) variant Clara cells (Clara v-cells) in the bronchioles and (d) at the junctions between the bronchioles and the alveolar ducts, and (e) alveolar type II cells...

A common characteristic of mammals is the development of extraembryonic supporting tissues and organs that are required for embryonic implantation, survival and development in utero. The amnion is the innermost extraembryonic membrane that eventually surrounds the fetus of amniotes, and contains the amniotic fluid. Next to its function in in utero development, the amnion has been shown to have an important potential for clinical applications. It is mainly used as a dressing to stimulate healing in skin and ocular wounds...

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been derived from different cultured human tissues, including bone marrow, adipose tissue, amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood. Only recently it was suggested that MSC descended from perivascular cells, the latter being defined as CD146⁺ neuro-glial proteoglycan (NG)2⁺ platelet-derived growth factor-Rβ⁺ ALP⁺ CD34⁻ CD45⁻ von Willebrand factor (vWF)⁻ CD144⁻. Herein we studied the properties of perivascular cells from a novel source, the foetal human umbilical cord (HUC) collected from pre-term newborns...

Recent evidence shows that amniotic fluid (AF) contains multiple cell types derived from the developing fetus, and may represent a novel source of stem cells for cell therapy. In this study, we examined the paracrine factors released by human amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AF-MSCs) and their ability to accelerate the wound-healing process by stimulating proliferation and migration of dermal fibroblasts. AF-MSCs expressed the typical MSC marker proteins CD13, CD29, and CD44 and differentiated into adipocytes, osteoblasts, and chondrocytes when exposed to the appropriate differentiation media...

PURPOSE: Wound healing of the cryo-injured bladder can bring about organ remodeling because of incomplete reconstitution of depleted smooth muscle cells. Stem cell transplantation could be beneficial to improve smooth muscle cell regeneration and/or modulate the remodeling process. The repair of bladder injury using adult-type stem cells would be useful for adult urological patients but unsuited for neonatal patients, in whom major benefits are likely to derive from fetal-type stem cells...