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Putative mesenchymal stem cells isolated from adult human ovaries

  • Stem Cell Biology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to show that healthy adult human ovaries can be a source of cells showing typical MSCs characteristics under in vitro conditions.

Methods and results

The cells, which were isolated from ovarian cortex tissue and named putative ovarian mesenchymal stem cells (PO-MSCs), were compared to bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs) and to adult human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). The results of a gene expression analysis using the Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell RT² Profiler™ PCR Array revealed that PO-MSCs were different than fibroblasts. They expressed most of the analyzed genes as BM-MSCs, although some genes were differentially expressed. However, the heterogeneity of PO-MSCs samples was revealed. The PO-MSCs expressed the characteristic genes related to MSCs, such as CD105, CD44, CD90, M-CAM, CD73 and VCAM1. In addition, the expression of markers CD44, CD90, M-CAM and STRO-1 was confirmed in PO-MSCs using immunocytochemistry. The PO-MSCs showed multipotent character, since they were able to differentiate into the cells of adipogenic, osteogenic, neural and pancreatic lineage.

Conclusions

Healthy adult human ovaries can harbour an interesting population of cells showing typical MSCs characteristics under in vitro conditions and for this reason we named these cells putative MSCs. These cells express genes encoding main MSCs markers and have an interesting differential potential. Based on these results, we propose PO-MSCs as a novel type of MSCs which share some similarities with BM-MSCs. Nevertheless they show distinct and specific characteristics and are not fibroblasts.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Branko Cvjeticanin, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, for providing the ovarian tissue biopsies, to all patients who donated ovarian tissue for this research, to Dr. Elvira Malicev and Prof. Primoz Rozman, the Blood Transfusion Centre of Ljubljana for providing flow-cytometry analysis, to all the colleagues at the Reproductive Unit of our department and to the Slovenian Research Agency (grant J3-4195 to Dr. Irma Virant-Klun) for financial support.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slajmerjeva 3, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Martin Stimpfel & Irma Virant-Klun

  2. Department of Molecular Diagnostics, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Zaloska 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Petra Cerkovnik & Srdjan Novakovic

  3. Institute of Medical Genetics, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slajmerjeva 3, 1000, Ljubljana, SI, Slovenia

    Ales Maver

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  1. Martin Stimpfel
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  2. Petra Cerkovnik
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  4. Ales Maver
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  5. Irma Virant-Klun
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Correspondence to Irma Virant-Klun.

Additional information

Capsule We propose putative ovarian mesenchymal stem cells (PO-MSCs) as a novel type of MSCs which share some similarities with bone marrow-derived MSCs but nevertheless show distinct and specific characteristics.

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Stimpfel, M., Cerkovnik, P., Novakovic, S. et al. Putative mesenchymal stem cells isolated from adult human ovaries. J Assist Reprod Genet 31, 959–974 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-014-0254-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-014-0254-8

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