Neural Antigen Expressions in Cultured Human Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells in vitro .

Ha, Yoon; Yoon, Do Heum; Yeon, Dong Su; Kim, Hyun Ok; Lee, Jin Ju; Cho, Yong Eun; Choi, Joong Uhn

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 2001;30(8): 963-969.

Yoon Ha, Do Heum Yoon, Dong Su Yeon, Hyun Ok Kim, Jin Ju Lee, Yong Eun Cho, Joong Uhn Choi

¹Department of Neurosurgery, Seoul District Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Institute of Brain Research, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
³Department of Clinical Pathology, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
⁴Department of Neurosurgery, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE
S: Cord blood stem cells have been widely used as donor cells for bone marrow transplantation recently. These cells can give rise to a variety of hematopoietic lineages to repopulate the blood. Recent observations reveal that some bone marrow cells and bone marrow stromal cells(MSCs) can grow to become either neurons or glial cells. It is, however, unclear whether or not there exists stems cells which can differentiate into neurons in the blood during the early stages of postnatal life.
METHODS
Human cord blood stem cells were prepared from human placenta after full term delivery. To induce neuronal differentiation of stem cells, beta-mercaptoethanol was treated. To confirm the neuro-glial characteristics of differentiated stem cells, immunocytochemical stain for NeuN, neurofilament, glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP), microtubule associated protein2(MAP2) was performed. RT-PCR was performed for detecting nestin mRNA and MAP2 mRNA.
RESULTS
We showed in this experiment that neuro-glial markers(NeuN, neurofilament, MAP2, GFAP) were expressed and axon-like cytoplasmic processes are elaborated in the cultured human cord blood stem cells prepared from new born placenta after full term delivery. Nestin mRNA was also detected in fresh cord blood monocytes.
Conclusions
These results suggest that human cord blood derived stem cells may be potential sources of neurons in early postnatal life.

Key Words: Neural stem cells; Cord blood stem cells; Neurofilament; MAP2; GFAP; Differentiation