Published online Jul 26, 2014. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v6.i3.367
Revised: March 11, 2014
Accepted: May 16, 2014
Published online: July 26, 2014
Processing time: 190 Days and 19.1 Hours
In cell therapy protocols, many tissues were proposed as a source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) isolation. So far, bone marrow (BM) has been presented as the main source of MSC despite the invasive isolation procedure related to this source. During the last years, the umbilical cord (UC) matrix was cited in different studies as a reliable source from which long term ex vivo proliferating fibroblasts were isolated but with contradictory data about their immunophenotype, gene expression profile, and differentiation potential. Hence, an interesting question emerged: Are cells isolated from cord matrix (UC-MSC) different from other MSCs? In this review, we will summarize different studies that isolated and characterized UC-MSC. Considering BM-MSC as gold standard, we will discuss if UC-MSC fulfill different criteria that define MSC, and what remain to be done in this issue.
Core tip: Umbilical cord matrix derived fibroblasts [umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSC)] have gained importance in the last years. We have studied these cells and noticed some differences when compared with bone marrow-MSC in term of differentiation and phenotype. Other studies pointed out similar differences. Recently, some studies have doubted of the MSC nature of these cells. Starting from our own results and those from literature, we summarized in this minireview different studies that isolated and characterised UC-MSC. In the discussion we confronted the contradictory data about the differentiation and immunophenotype of UC-MSC and highlight what remains to be done to answer the question: are cord matrix isolated fibroblasts stem cells or not?