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Taurine Promotes the Cartilaginous Differentiation of Human Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Vitro

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Abstract

Taurine has been reported to influence osteogenic differentiation, but the role of taurine on cartilaginous differentiation using human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effect of taurine (0, 1, 5 and 10 mM) on the proliferation and chondrogenesis of hUC-MSCs by analyzing cell proliferation, accumulation of glycosaminoglycans and expression of cartilage specific mRNA. The results show though taurine did not affected the proliferation of hUC-MSCs, 5 mM of taurine is sufficient to enhanced the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans and up-regulate cartilage specific mRNA expression, namely collagen type II, aggrecan and SOX9. Taurine also inhibits chondrocyte dedifferentiation by reducing expression of collagen type I mRNA. Taken together, our study reveals that taurine promotes and maintains the chondrogenesis of hUC-MSCs.

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Abbreviations

BM-MSCs:

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

CCK-8:

Cell counting kit-8 assay

cDNA:

Complementary DNA

DAPI:

4′,6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole

DMEM:

Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium

EDTA:

Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid

FACS:

Flow cytometry

GAG:

Glycosaminoglycan

hUC-MSCs:

Human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells

MSCs:

Mesenchymal stem cells

PBS:

Phosphate-buffered saline

TGF:

The transforming growth factor

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Fund of China (81571216), National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2014AA020703), Tianjin Municipal science and technology application of basic and advanced technology of key projects (11JCZDJC19400, 16JCZDJC35500).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cerebral Vascular and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Tianjin Neurosurgical Institute, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, No. 6, JiZhao Road, Hexi district, Tianjin, 300350, People’s Republic of China

    Xiuhua Yao, Huiling Huang & Weijia Fan

  2. NewScen Coast Bio-Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., 65 sixth Ave., TEDA, Tianjin, 300457, People’s Republic of China

    Zhou Li & Hongrui Zhou

  3. Arthro-Anda Tianjin Biologic Technology Co., Ltd., 2F Building No. 2, Tian Bao Industrial Park, Xi Qi Road, Tianjin Airport Industrial Park, Tianjin, 300308, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaohua Liu, Xuelian Sun, Jianmin Zhu & Huaying Wei

  4. Departement of Neurology, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, No. 6, JiZhao Road, Hexi district, Tianjin, 300350, People’s Republic of China

    Xinping Wang

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  1. Xiuhua Yao
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  2. Huiling Huang
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  3. Zhou Li
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Correspondence to Huiling Huang.

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Yao, X., Huang, H., Li, Z. et al. Taurine Promotes the Cartilaginous Differentiation of Human Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Vitro. Neurochem Res 42, 2344–2353 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-017-2252-6

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