Analysis of stability of human urine derived stem cells during serial subcultures

Urine-Derived Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine: Basic Biology, Applications, and Challenges

Regenerative medicine based on stem cell research has the potential to provide advanced health care for human beings. Recent studies demonstrate that stem cells in human urine can serve as an excellent source of graft cells for regenerative therapy, mainly due to simple, low-cost, and noninvasive cell isolation. These cells, termed human urine-derived stem cells (USCs), are highly expandable and can differentiate into various cell lineages. They share many biological properties with mesenchymal stem cells, such as potent paracrine effects and immunomodulation ability. The advantage of USCs has motivated researchers to explore their applications in regenerative medicine, including genitourinary regeneration, musculoskeletal repair, skin wound healing, and disease treatment. Although USCs have showed many positive outcomes in preclinical studies, and although the possible applications of USCs for animal therapy have been reported, many issues need to be addressed before clinical translation. This article provides a comprehensive review of USC biology and recent advances in their application for tissue regeneration. Challenges in the clinical translation of USC-based therapy are also discussed. Impact statement Recently, stem cells isolated from urine, referred to as urine-derived stem cells (USCs), have gained much interest in the field of regenerative medicine. Many advantages of human USCs have been found for cell-based therapy: (i) the cell isolation procedure is simple and low cost; (ii) they have remarkable proliferation ability, multidifferentiation potential, and paracrine effects; and (iii) they facilitate tissue regeneration in many animal models. With the hope to facilitate the development of USC-based therapy, we describe the current understanding of USC biology, summarize recent advances in their applications, and discuss future challenges in clinical translation.

Immunomodulatory Effect of Urine-derived Stem Cells on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases via Downregulating Th1/Th17 Immune Responses in a PGE2-dependent Manner

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Despite the therapeutic promise of stem cell therapy in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases [IBD], most donor cell populations have to be obtained via invasive approaches and often remain insufficiently validated. Urine-derived stem cells [USC] were recently shown to have regenerative properties and can be harvested in a safe, low-cost, and noninvasive way. This study aims to evaluate the immunomodulatory effect of USC and their efficacy in the management of IBD.

METHODS

Human USC were isolated and expanded from the urine of healthy male adult volunteers [n = 3, age range 24-30 years]. USC were characterised by cell surface marker expression profile and multipotent differentiation. The in vitro immunomodulatory effect of USC was evaluated by co-culturing with human CD4+ T cells upon stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin [PHA]. The proliferation of CD4+ T was measured by fluorescence-activated cell sorting [FACS]. Cytokine array and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR] were applied to examine cytokine levels. In vivo therapeutic value of USC was assessed using a murine colitis model induced by dextran sulphate sodium [DSS] or 2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzene sulphonic acid [TNBS]. The immunomodulatory effect of USC and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells [BMSC] was compared when co-cultured with CD4+ T cells. The therapeutic efficacy of USC and BMSC on IBD was compared when administered in an acute DSS model in vivo.

RESULTS

USC were positive for mesenchymal stem cell markers but were negative for haematopoietic stem cell markers. These cells differentiated into osteo-, adipo-, and chondrogenic cell lineages. Similar to BMSC, the proliferation of CD4+ T cells was significantly inhibited when co-cultured with USC, as a consequence of Th1/Th17 immune response inhibition. Systemic administration of USC significantly ameliorated the clinical and histopathological severity of colitis and increased the survival rate in both acute and chronic murine colitis models. Moreover, implantation of USC led to downregulation of the Th1/Th17 immune responses in a PGE2-dependent manner.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrated that implantation of USC reduces inflammation in an IBD rodent model via downregulation of Th1/Th17 immune responses, indicating that USC therapy serves as a potential cell-based therapeutic candidate treatment for IBD.

Characterization of Human Fetal Cartilage Progenitor Cells During Long-Term Expansion in a Xeno-Free Medium

BACKGROUND

Stem cell therapy requires a serum-free and/or chemically-defined medium for commercialization, but it is difficult to find one that supports long-term expansion of cells without compromising their stemness, particularly for novel stem cells.

METHODS

In this study, we tested the efficiency of StemPro® MSC SFM Xeno Free (SFM-XF), a serum-free medium, for the long-term expansion of human fetal cartilage-derived progenitor cells (hFCPCs) from three donors in comparison to that of the conventional α-Modified Eagle's Medium (α-MEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS).

RESULTS

We found that SFM-XF supported the expansion of hFCPCs for up to 28-30 passages without significant changes in the doubling time, while α-MEM with 10% FBS showed a rapid increase in doubling time at 10-18 passages depending on the donor. Senescence of hFCPCs was not observed until passage 10 in both media but was induced in approximately 15 and 25% of cells at passage 20 in SFM-XF and α-MEM with 10% FBS, respectively. The colony forming ability of hFCPCs in SFX-XF was also comparable to that in α-MEM with 10% FBS. hFCPCs expressed pluripotency genes like Oct-4, Sox-2, Nanog, SCF, and SSEA4 at passage 20 and 31 in SFM-XF; however, this was not observed when cells were cultured in α-MEM with 10% FBS. The ability of hFCPCs to differentiate into three mesodermal lineages decreased gradually in both media but it was less significant in SFM-XF. Finally we found no chromosomal abnormality after long-term culture of hFCPCs until passage 17 by karyotype analysis.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that SFM-XF supports the long-term expansion of hFCPCs without significant phenotypic and chromosomal changes. This study have also shown that hFCPCs can be mass-produced in vitro, proving their commercial value as a novel source for developing cell therapies.