Use of umbilical cord blood for stem cell research

An optimized procedure for preparation of conditioned medium from Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stromal cells isolated from umbilical cord

Cell-free therapy based on conditioned medium derived from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has gained attention in the field of protective and regenerative medicine. However, the exact composition and properties of MSC-derived conditioned media can vary greatly depending on multiple parameters, which hamper standardization. In this study, we have optimized a procedure for preparation of conditioned medium starting from efficient isolation, propagation and characterization of MSCs from human umbilical cord, using a culture medium supplemented with human platelet lysate as an alternative source to fetal bovine serum. Our procedure successfully maximizes the yield of viable MSCs that maintain canonical key features. Importantly, under these conditions, the compositional profile and biological effects elicited by the conditioned medium preparations derived from these MSC populations do not depend on donor individuality. Moreover, approximately 120 L of conditioned medium could be obtained from a single umbilical cord, which provides a suitable framework to produce industrial amounts of toxic-free conditioned medium with predictable composition.

Antioxidant, Pro-Survival and Pro-Regenerative Effects of Conditioned Medium from Wharton's Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Developing Zebrafish Embryos

Conditioned media harvested from stem cell culturing have the potential to be innovative therapeutic tools against various diseases, due to their high content of growth, trophic and protective factors. The evaluation in vivo of the effects and biosafety of these products is essential, and zebrafish provides an ideal platform for high-throughput toxicological analysis, concurrently allowing the minimization of the use of mammalian models without losing reliability. In this study, we assessed the biological effects elicited by the exposure of zebrafish embryos to a conditioned medium derived from Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells. By a multiparametric investigation combining molecular, embryological, behavioural and in vivo imaging techniques, we found that exposure to a conditioned medium at a non-toxic/non-lethal dosage triggers antioxidant, anti-apoptotic and pro-regenerative effects, by upregulation of a set of genes involved in antioxidant defence (nrf2, brg1, sirt1, sirt6, foxO3a, sod2 and cat), glycolysis (ldha) and cell survival (bcl2l1, mcl1a and bim), coupled to downregulation of pro-apoptotic markers (baxa, caspase-3a and caspase-8). To our knowledge, this is the first study comprehensively addressing the effects of a conditioned medium on a whole organism from a developmental, molecular and behavioural perspective, and we are fairly confident that it will pave the way for future therapeutic application.

Feline umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells: Isolation and in vitro characterization from distinct parts of the umbilical cord

Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are a particular population of cells that play an essential role in the regeneration potential of the body. As a source of MSCs, the umbilical cord (UC) has significant advantages, such as a no-risk procedure of tissue retrieval after birth and the easiness of MSCs isolation. In the presented study, the cells derived from the feline whole umbilical cord (WUC) and two separate parts of the UC tissue, including Wharton's jelly (WJ) and umbilical cord vessels (UCV), were investigated to check whether they exhibit MSCs characteristics. The cells were isolated and characterized based on their morphology, pluripotency, differentiation potential, and phenotype. In our study MSCs were successfully isolated and cultured from all UC parts; after one week of culture, the cells had a typical spindle shape consistent with MSCs morphology. Cells showed the ability to differentiate into chondrocytes, osteoblasts and adipocytes cells. Two markers typical of MSCs (CD44, CD90) and three pluripotency markers (Oct4, SOX2 and Nanog) were expressed in all cells cultures; but no expression of (CD34, MCH II) was evidenced by flow cytometry and RT-PCR. In addition, WJ-MSCs showed the highest ability of proliferation, more significant pluripotency gene expressions, and greater differentiation potential than the cells isolated from WUC and UCV. Finally, we conclude in this study that cat MSCs derived from all the parts are valuable cells that can be efficiently used in various fields of feline regenerative medicine, but cells from WJ can offer the best clinical utility.

Translational Research in Pediatrics IV: Solid Tissue Collection and Processing

Solid tissues are critical for child-health research. Specimens are commonly obtained at the time of biopsy/surgery or postmortem. Research tissues can also be obtained at the time of organ retrieval for donation or from tissue that would otherwise have been discarded. Navigating the ethics of solid tissue collection from children is challenging, and optimal handling practices are imperative to maximize tissue quality. Fresh biopsy/surgical specimens can be affected by a variety of factors, including age, gender, BMI, relative humidity, freeze/thaw steps, and tissue fixation solutions. Postmortem tissues are also vulnerable to agonal factors, body storage temperature, and postmortem intervals. Nonoptimal tissue handling practices result in nucleotide degradation, decreased protein stability, artificial posttranslational protein modifications, and altered lipid concentrations. Tissue pH and tryptophan levels are 2 methods to judge the quality of solid tissue collected for research purposes; however, the RNA integrity number, together with analyses of housekeeping genes, is the new standard. A comprehensive clinical data set accompanying all tissue samples is imperative. In this review, we examined: the ethical standards relating to solid tissue procurement from children; potential sources of solid tissues; optimal practices for solid tissue processing, handling, and storage; and reliable markers of solid tissue quality.

From waste to (fool's) gold: promissory and profit values of cord blood

According to biomedical discourse, cord blood has been transformed from 'waste' to 'clinical gold' because of its potential for use in treatments. Private cord blood banks deploy clinical discourse to market their services to prospective parents, encouraging them to pay to bank cord blood as a form of 'biological insurance' to ensure their child's future health. Social scientists have examined new forms of (bio)value produced in biological materials emergent with contemporary biotechnologies. This paper contributes to this literature by examining the social and technical production of value in cord blood units collected for private banking. Value, in this paper is defined as a socio-cultural concept in which an object is made meaningful, or valuable, through its relations with social actors and within specific regimes of value. I draw on in-depth interviews with women who banked cord blood and key informants in private banks in Canada, to analyze how social actors produced cord blood as a valuable biological object. I show that a cord blood unit holds promissory value for women who bank and profit value for private banks and that these values are folded into each other and the biological material itself. Analyzing how specific cord blood units are made valuable provides insight into the multiple and possibly competing values of biological materials and the tensions that may arise between social actors and forms of knowledge during the valuing process.

Different Tissue-Derived Stem Cells: A Comparison of Neural Differentiation Capability

BACKGROUND

Stem cells are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into a wide range of cell types with multiple clinical and therapeutic applications. Stem cells are providing hope for many diseases that currently lack effective therapeutic methods, including strokes, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. However, the paucity of suitable cell types for cell replacement therapy in patients suffering from neurological disorders has hampered the development of this promising therapeutic approach.

AIM

The innovative aspect of this study has been to evaluate the neural differentiation capability of different tissue-derived stem cells coming from different tissue sources such as bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, human endometrium and amniotic fluid, cultured under the same supplemented media neuro-transcription factor conditions, testing the expression of neural markers such as GFAP, Nestin and Neurofilaments using the immunofluorescence staining assay and some typical clusters of differentiation such as CD34, CD90, CD105 and CD133 by using the cytofluorimetric test assay.

RESULTS

Amniotic fluid derived stem cells showed a more primitive phenotype compared to the differentiating potential demonstrated by the other stem cell sources, representing a realistic possibility in the field of regenerative cell therapy suitable for neurodegenerative diseases.

Fostering public cord blood banking and research in Canada

In June 2013, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) established the National Public Cord Blood Bank (NPCBB) accessible to Canadian and international patients and researchers. The NPCBB promotes efforts that contribute to research and improved clinical care by making units not suitable for banking or transplantation available for research. In the context of the NPCBB of the CBS, this article will focus on the practical tools (e.g., consent protocols) developed to optimize umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking and research while enabling ethical provenance of UCB stem cells. The Canadian approach represents an ideal model for comparison as it is a country in which the national public bank (and other regional/provincial public banks) coexists with private companies.

Umbilical cord blood banking: from personal donation to international public registries to global bioeconomy

The procedures for collecting voluntarily and freely donated umbilical cord blood (UCB) units and processing them for use in transplants are extremely costly, and the capital flows thus generated form part of an increasingly pervasive global bioeconomy. To place the issue in perspective, this article first examines the different types of UCB biobank, the organization of international registries of public UCB biobanks, the optimal size of national inventories, and the possibility of obtaining commercial products from donated units. The fees generally applied for the acquisition of UCB units for transplantation are then discussed, and some considerations are proposed regarding the social and ethical implications raised by the international network for the importation and exportation of UCB, with a particular emphasis on the globalized bioeconomy of UCB and its commerciality or lack thereof.

Ethical and legal considerations regarding the ownership and commercial use of human biological materials and their derivatives

This article considers some of the ethical and legal issues relating to the ownership and use - including for commercial purposes - of biological material and products derived from humans. The discussion is divided into three parts: after first examining the general notion of ownership, it moves to the particular case of possible commercial use, and finally reflects on the case in point in the light of the preceding considerations. Units of cord blood donated altruistically for transplantation and which are found unsuitable for storage and transplantation, or which become unsuitable while stored in biobanks, are taken as an example. These cord-blood units can be discarded together with other biological waste, or they can be used for research or the development of blood-derived products such as platelet gel. Several ethical questions (eg, informed consent, property, distribution of profits, and others) arise from these circumstances. In this regard, some criteria and limits to use are proposed.