Abstract
Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are promising tools in regenerative medicine and targeted therapies. Although different origins have been described, there is still huge need to find a valuable source harboring specific subpopulations of MSCs with precise therapeutic functions. Here, we isolated by fluorescence activated cell sorting technique, two populations of Wharton’s jelly (WJ)-MSCs based on their aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity. Two different ALDH activities (low vs. high) were thus observed. We then analyzed their gene expression profile for stemness, phenotype, response to hypoxia, angiogenesis, hematopoietic support, immunomodulation and multilineage differentiation abilities (osteogenesis, adipogenesis, and chondrogenesis). According to ALDH activity, many differences in the mRNA expression of these populations were noticed. In conclusion, we provide evidences that WJ harbors two distinct populations of MSCs with different ALDH activity. These populations seem to display specific functional competences that may be interesting for concise therapeutic applications.
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Acknowledgements
We thank “Télévie” (FNRS) for the financial support.
Funding
Mehdi Najar is awardee of a “Télévie” post-doctoral fellowship and Emerence Crompot is awardee of Ph.D. Grant “Télévie” (F.N.R.S).
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Conceived and designed the experiments: MN, LL. Performed the experiments: MN, LL. Analyzed the data: EC, MN, LD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LD, LVG. Wrote the paper: EC, MN, LL.
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This study was approved by the Bordet Institute Ethics Committee (Belgium) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). All donors and/or their parents gave written informed consent.
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Najar, M., Crompot, E., van Grunsven, L.A. et al. Aldehyde dehydrogenase activity of Wharton jelly mesenchymal stromal cells: isolation and characterization. Cytotechnology 71, 427–441 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-018-0283-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-018-0283-8