外胚间充质干细胞构建组织工程骨骼肌的应用研究

目的:探讨利用大鼠颌突外胚间充质干细胞构建组织工程骨骼肌的可行性,并观察对骨骼肌缺损的修复重建的促进效应。方法:取妊娠E 11.5胎鼠颌突外胚间充质干细胞,纯化后在含5ml/L体积浓度二甲基亚砜的DMEM/F12培养基中诱导分化为骨骼肌样细胞,将细胞种植于BAM膜上培养形成组织工程骨骼肌。将其移植入大鼠骨骼肌缺损模型,手术后14 d观察骨骼肌恢复情况,同期进行组织学及免疫组化染色鉴定。结果:经诱导后外胚间充质干细胞可向骨骼肌样细胞转化,构建的组织工程骨骼肌可加速缺损的修复重建,组织学染色显示外胚间充质干细胞具有正常骨骼肌的组织形态,可表达成肌相关蛋白MyOD。结论:诱导后的外胚间充质干细胞可作为种子细胞构建组织工程骨骼肌,本实验为临床肌肉的缺损修复奠定了理论基础。     

间充质干细胞研究新进展

骨髓中存在着一种多潜能的间充质干细胞(Mesenchymal stem cell,MSC)。其在体内分布广泛,易分离,能在体外大量扩增,并具有强大的可塑性,除能在体内、外诱导分化形成骨、软骨、脂肪、神经胶质等细胞以外,最新的研究结果表明还能分化形成包括血液、内皮、肝实质细胞以及视网膜等几乎三个胚层的细胞。由于间充质干细胞跨越了人胚胎干细胞所面临的伦理问题,这使得间充质干细胞在细胞治疗及组织工程等应用方面具有其他组织干细胞不可比拟的优势。     

3种间充质干细胞成软骨分化潜能比较

目的:比较骨髓间充质干细胞、脂肪间充质干细胞、滑膜间充质干细胞3种间充质干细胞的成软骨分化潜能,为软骨组织工程中种子细胞的选择提供实验依据。方法:采用贴壁法分别分离提取兔骨髓间充质干细胞、脂肪间充质干细胞、滑膜间充质干细胞3种间充质干细胞,并进行传代培养,绘制3种间充质干细胞的生长曲线并比较其倍增时间。将3种间充质干细胞成软骨诱导14 d后,行甲苯胺蓝染色及II型胶原免疫组化染色以观测3种细胞成软骨分化能力。结果:脂肪间充质干细胞的倍增时间短于骨髓间充质干细胞,滑膜间充质干细胞的倍增时间最短;3种细胞成软骨诱导14 d后均产生糖胺聚糖和II型胶原,且组与组之间II型胶原表达水平的差异有统计学意义,骨髓间充质干细胞组高于脂肪间充质干细胞组(P0.01),滑膜间充质干细胞组高于骨髓间充质干细胞组(P0.01)。结论:在一定的培养条件下,3种间充质干细胞均有一定的成软骨细胞分化潜能,滑膜间充质干细胞最快的增殖速度及最强的成软骨分化潜能。     

间充质干细胞诱导分化为胰岛β细胞的研究进展

间充质干细胞是一类具有多向分化潜能的成体干细胞,在体内外不仅可以被诱导分化为中胚层细胞,而且可以分化为内胚层和神经外胚层细胞。间充质干细胞易分离,体外可大量扩增,异体移植不引起免疫排斥反应,在细胞治疗和组织工程中具有广阔的应用前景。经过适当诱导,间充质干细胞可能成为胰岛β细胞的来源之一。就间充质干细胞的生物学性状和优势,以及诱导分化为胰岛β细胞的技术方法和发展趋势进行了综述。     

山羊胚胎大脑皮层神经干细胞分离、培养与鉴定

目的 :从山羊胚胎大脑皮层中分离培养并鉴定神经干细胞。方法 :利用NBS培养和单细胞克隆技术在山羊胚胎大脑皮层中分离出具有单细胞克隆能力的细胞 ,并进行培养、传代、分化观察 ,采用免疫组化检测克隆细胞的神经巢蛋白 (Nestin)抗原和分化后特异性成熟神经细胞抗原的表达。结果 :从胚龄 2 4～ 30d的新鲜山羊胚胎大脑皮层中成功分离出神经干细胞 ,该细胞具有连续克隆能力 ,可传代培养 ,表达神经巢蛋白抗原。分化后的细胞表达神经元细胞、胶质细胞和少突胶质细胞的特异性抗原。结论 :山羊胚胎大脑皮层中存在具有自我更新能力和多分化潜能的神经干细胞。     

外胚间充质干细胞在牙组织工程的应用与基因调控

用干细胞构建组织工程化牙齿是近年来口腔医学领域的研究热点,外胚间充质干细胞是目前已知牙源性干细胞的共同前体细胞,细胞的生物学特性和成牙信号分子环境是牙齿发育与再生的核心与关键,并贯穿于牙齿形成的全过程,是研究牙组织工程最具潜力的种子细胞,明确外胚间充质干细胞成牙分化能力及相关表型特征和分化特性,对进一步深入认识牙齿发育与再生机理具有重要作用。     

脐带间充质干细胞应用的最新进展

脐带间充质干细胞(umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells,UC-MSCs)主要来自中胚层,是从出生后废弃的胚外组织中分离获得,具有比一般的成体干细胞更强的多能分化能力,而且可以跨胚层分化,可以诱导分化为骨细胞、软骨细胞、内皮细胞、心肌细胞,以及神经细胞、肝脏细胞和胰岛细胞等.这表明脐带来源的干细胞具有多向分化潜能,具有作为细胞替代治疗的种子细胞可能.这篇综述将浅谈UC-MSCs的优势,免疫学特性,并重点探讨其应用的最新进展.     

骨髓间充质干细胞在组织工程研究中的应用新进展

骨髓间充质干细胞又称为骨髓源性间充质干细胞,是指存在于骨髓基质细胞系统中的一类干细胞,具有高度稳定的体外扩增能力和多向分化潜能等特点。骨髓间充质干细胞因其取材方便,易于分离和培养,以及在适当条件下可诱导分化为皮肤、骨骼、内脏、血液、神经等多种组织细胞的独特优势,目前被广泛应用于药物开发、免疫调节、组织修复、器官重建等多个研究领域。近年来,骨髓间充质干细胞作为种子细胞在组织工程领域有着非常诱人的潜在应用前景。本文就骨髓间充质干细胞在组织工程学研究中应用的最新进展作一综述。     

间充质干细胞向成骨细胞分化的信号通路

间充质干细胞具有向成骨细胞分化的潜能,可体外分离、培养和扩增,是骨组织工程中理想的种子细胞。近年的研究表明间充质干细胞的成骨分化受到多种信号通路的调控,现就其中研究较为深入的MAPK和Notch通路的情况作一简要综述。     

脐带间充质干细胞——组织工程的新视角

目的 从脐带中分离培养脐带间充质干细胞(mesenchymal stem cell, MSC) 并进行鉴定,阐明其多向分化的潜在作用.方法 收集健康胎儿脐带,分离培养脐带中的间充质干细胞,以流式细胞仪对培养的间充质干细胞进行细胞表面标志检测,多种成分联合诱导其向脂肪、成骨方向分化,细胞化学染色检测诱导后的细胞变化.结果 脐带中分离培养的间充质干细胞不表达造血细胞系的标志CD34、CD45、HLA-DR,强表达CD105、CD44、CD90,在适当的诱导条件下可向脂肪及成骨方向分化.结论 脐带中存在具有多向分化潜能的间充质干细胞.     

Stem cells in the embryonic cerebral cortex: Their role in histogenesis and patterning

The cytoarchitectural simplicity of the cerebral cortex makes it an attractive system to study central nervous system (CNS) histogenesis—the process whereby diverse cells are generated in the right numbers at the appropriate place and time. Recently, multipotent stem cells have been implicated in this process, as progenitor cells for diverse types of cortical neurons and glia. Continuous analysis of stem cell clone development reveals stereotyped division patterns within their lineage trees, highly reminiscent of neural lineage trees in arthropods and Caenorhabditis elegans. Given that these division patterns play a critical part in generating diverse neural types in invertebrates, we speculate that they play a similar role in the cortex. Because stereotyped lineage trees can be observed from cells growing at clonal density, cell-intrinsic factors are likely to have a key role in stem cell behavior. Cortical stem cells also respond to environmental signals to alter the types of cells they generate, providing the means for feedback regulation on the germinal zone. Evidence is accumulating that cortical stem cells, influenced by intrinsic programs and environmental signals, actually change with development—for example, by reducing the number and types of neurons they produce. Age-related changes in the stem cell population may have a critical role in orchestrating development; whether these cells truly self-renew is a point of discussion. In summary, we propose that cortical stem cells are the focus of regulatory mechanisms central to the development of the cortical cytoarchitecture. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Neurobiol 36: 162–174, 1998     

Induction and patterning of the neural crest,a stem cell-like precursor population

The neural crest is a multipotent precursor population which ulimately generates much of the peripheral nervous system, epidermal pigment cells, and a variety of mesectodermal derivatives. Individual multipotent neural crest cells are capable of some self-renewing divisions, and based upon this criteria can be considered stem cells. Considerable progress has been made in recent years toward understanding how this important population of progenitor cells is initially established in the early embryo, and how cell-intrinsic and non-cell-instristic factors mediate their subsequent lineage segregation and differentiation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Neurobiol 36: 175–189, 1998     

Spontaneous transformation of a clonal population of dermis-derived multipotent cells in culture

It is reported that adult multipotent stem cells can undergo spontaneous transformation after long-term in vitro culture. Understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in this spontaneous transformation process can help in the design of future therapeutic applications. By far, the transformation process of adult multipotent stem cell is not well understood. In this study, a tumorigenic cell line nominated TDMC1 was established from a clonal population of rat dermis-derived multipotent cells (DMCs) following spontaneous transformation in culture. The transformed cells could produce tumors with characteristics of fibrous histocytoma when they are inoculated subcutaneously into nude mice. The molecular profiles of the nontransformed DMCs and transformed cells were analyzed by a deoxyribonucleic acid microarray. Our results showed that the overactivation of the K-ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase signaling pathway played an important role in the transformation process. These data may be helpful to explain, at least in part, the possible mechanism for the malignant transformation of adult multipotent cells.     

Umbilical cord blood stem cells can expand hematopoietic and neuroglial progenitors in vitro

The ability of hematopoietic tissue-derived adult stem cells to transdifferentiate into neural progenitor cells offers an interesting alternative to central nervous system (CNS)- or embryonic-derived stem cells as a viable source for cellular therapies applied to brain regeneration. Umbilical cord blood (CB) due to its primitive nature and it unproblematic collection appears as a promising candidate for multipotent stem cell harvest. We developed a negative immunomagnetic selection method that depletes CB from hematopoietic lineage marker-expressing cells, hence isolating a discrete lineage negative (LinNeg) stem cell population (0.1% of CB mononucleated cell [MCN] population). In liquid culture supplemented with thrombopoietin, flt-3 ligand, and c-kit ligand (TPOFLK), CB LinNeg stem cells could expand primitive nonadherent hematopoietic progenitors (up to 47-fold) and simultaneously produce slow-dividing adherent cells with neuroglial progenitor cell morphology over 8 weeks. Laser scanning confocal microscopy analysis identified these adherent cells to express glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Gene expression analysis showed upregulation of primitive neuroglial progenitor cell markers including, GFAP, nestin, musashi-1, and necdin. ELISA quantification of liquid culture supernatant revealed the in vitro release of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFbeta1), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) suggesting their contribution to CB LinNeg stem cell transdifferentiation into neuroglial progenitors. Our study supports that a single CB specimen can be pre-expanded in TPOFLK to produce both primitive hematopoietic and neuropoietic progenitors, hence widening CB clinical potential for cellular therapies.     

Isolation of epithelial stem cells from dermis by a three-dimensional culture system

Skin is a representative self-renewing tissue containing stem cells. Although many attempts have been made to define and isolate skin-derived stem cells, establishment of a simple and reliable isolation procedure remains a goal to be achieved. Here, we report the isolation of cells having stem cell properties from mouse embryonic skin using a simple selection method based on an assumption that stem cells may grow in an anchorage-independent manner. We inoculated single cell suspensions prepared from mouse embryonic dermis into a temperature-sensitive gel and propagated the resulting colonies in a monolayer culture. The cells named dermis-derived epithelial progenitor-1 (DEEP) showed epithelial morphology and grew rapidly to a more than 200 population doubling level over a period of 250 days. When the cells were kept confluent, they spontaneously formed spheroids and continuously grew even in spheroids. Immunostaining revealed that all of the clones were positive for the expression of cytokeratin-8, -18, -19, and E-cadherin and negative for the expression of cytokeratin-1, -5, -6, -14, -20, vimentin, nestin, a ckit. Furthermore, they expressed epithelial stem cell markers such as p63, integrin beta1, and S100A6. On exposure to TGFbeta in culture, some of DEEP-1 cells expressed alpha-smooth muscle actin. When the cells were transplanted into various organs of adult SCID mice, a part of the inoculated cell population acquired neural, hepatic, and renal cell properties. These results indicate that the cells we isolated were of epithelial stem cell origin and that our new approach is useful for isolation of multipotent stem cells from skin tissues.     

Derivation of cranial neural crest-like cells from human embryonic stem cells

The neural crest is a transient population of multipotent progenitors contributing to a diverse array of tissues throughout the vertebrate embryo. Embryonic stem (ES) cells are able to form embryoid body and spontaneously differentiate to various lineages, following a reproducible temporal pattern of development that recapitulates early embryogenesis. Embryoid bodies were triturated and the dissociated cells were processed for fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), and more than 1% of cells were identified as frizzled-3⁺/cadherin-11⁺. Expression of marker genes associated with various terminal fates was detected for chondrocytes, glia, neurons, osteoblasts and smooth muscles, indicating that the FACS-sorted frizzled-3⁺/cadherin-11⁺ cells were multipotent progenitor cells capable of differentiating to fates associated with cranial neural crest. Moreover, the sorted cells were able to self-renew and maintain multipotent differentiation potential. The derivation of cranial neural crest-like multipotent progenitor cells from ES cells provides a new tool for cell lineage analysis of neural crest in vitro.     

Specification and formation of the neural crest: Perspectives on lineage segregation

The neural crest is a fascinating embryonic population unique to vertebrates that is endowed with remarkable differentiation capacity. Thought to originate from ectodermal tissue, neural crest cells generate neurons and glia of the peripheral nervous system, and melanocytes throughout the body. However, the neural crest also generates many ectomesenchymal derivatives in the cranial region, including cell types considered to be of mesodermal origin such as cartilage, bone, and adipose tissue. These ectomesenchymal derivatives play a critical role in the formation of the vertebrate head, and are thought to be a key attribute at the center of vertebrate evolution and diversity. Further, aberrant neural crest cell development and differentiation is the root cause of many human pathologies, including cancers, rare syndromes, and birth malformations. In this review, we discuss the current findings of neural crest cell ontogeny, and consider tissue, cell, and molecular contributions toward neural crest formation. We further provide current perspectives into the molecular network involved during the segregation of the neural crest lineage.     

Neural crest cells and patterning of the mammalian dentition

The mammalian dentition is composed of serial groups of teeth, each with a distinctive crown and root morphology, highly adapted to its particular masticatory function. In the embryo, generation of individual teeth within the jaws relies upon interactions between ectoderm of the first branchial arch and the neural crest-derived ectomesenchymal cells that migrate into this region from their site of origin along the neural axis. Classic tissue recombination experiments have provided evidence of an essential role of the ectoderm in initiating tooth development; however, the underlying ectomesenchyme rapidly acquires dominance in establishing shape. A key question is how these cells acquire this positional information. One theory suggests that ectomesenchymal cells are pre-patterned with respect to shape generation. Alternatively, this cell population acquires positional information within the first branchial arch itself, following migration. Recent molecular evidence suggests a high degree of plasticity within these ectomesenchymal cells. In particular, signalling molecules within the ectoderm exert a time-dependent influence upon the ectomesenchyme by establishing specific domains of homeobox gene expression. Initially, these ectomesenchymal cells are plastic and able to respond to signalling from the ectoderm, however, this plasticity is rapidly lost and pattern information becomes fixed. Therefore, in the first branchial arch, local regulation between the ectoderm and neural crest-derived ectomesenchyme is crucial in establishing the appropriate tooth shape in the correct region of the jaw.     

Temporospatial cell interactions regulating mandibular and maxillary arch patterning

The cellular origin of the instructive information for hard tissue patterning of the jaws has been the subject of a long-standing controversy. Are the cranial neural crest cells prepatterned or does the epithelium pattern a developmentally uncommitted population of ectomesenchymal cells? In order to understand more about how orofacial patterning is controlled we have investigated the temporal signalling interactions and responses between epithelium and mesenchymal cells in the mandibular and maxillary primordia. We show that within the mandibular arch, homeobox genes that are expressed in different proximodistal spatial domains corresponding to presumptive molar and incisor ectomesenchymal cells are induced by signals from the oral epithelium. In mouse, prior to E10, all ectomesenchyme cells in the mandibular arch are equally responsive to epithelial signals such as Fgf8, indicating that there is no pre-specification of these cells into different populations and suggesting that patterning of the hard tissues of the mandible is instructed by the epithelium. By E10.5, ectomesenchymal cell gene expression domains are still dependent on epithelial signals but have become fixed and ectopic expression cannot be induced. At E11 expression becomes independent of epithelial signals such that removal of the epithelium does not affect spatial ectomesenchymal expression. Significantly, however, the response of ectomesenchyme cells to epithelial regulatory signals was found to be different in the mandibular and maxillary primordium. Thus, whereas both mandibular and maxillary arch epithelia could induce Dlx2 and Dlx5 expression in the mandible and Dlx2 expression in the maxilla, neither could induce Dlx5 expression in the maxilla. Reciprocal cell transplantations between mandibular and maxillary arch ectomesenchymal cells revealed intrinsic differences between these populations of cranial neural crest-derived cells. Research in odontogenesis has shown that the oral epithelium of the mandibular and maxillary primordia has unique instructive signaling properties required to direct odontogenesis, which are not found in other branchial arch epithelia. As a consequence, development of jaw-specific skeletal structures may require some prespecification of maxillary ectomesenchyme to restrict the instructive influence of the epithelial signals and allow development of maxillary structures distinct from mandibular structures.     

Plasticity and predetermination of mesencephalic and trunk neural crest transplanted into the region of the cardiac neural crest

The cardiac neural crest contains ectomesenchymal and neural anlagen that are necessary for normal heart development. It is not known whether other regions of the neural crest are capable of supporting normal heart development. In the experiments reported herein, quail donor embryos provided cardiac, trunk, or mesencephalic neural crest to replace or add to the chick host cardiac neural crest. Neither trunk nor mesencephalic neural crest was capable of generating ectomesenchyme competent to effect truncal septation. Addition of mesencephalic neural crest resulted in a high incidence of persistent truncus arteriosus, suggesting that ectomesenchyme derived from the mesencephalic region interferes with ectomesenchyme derived from the cardiac neural crest. Derivatives from the trunk neural crest, on the other hand, did not result in abnormal development of the truncal septum. While mesencephalic neural crest seeded the cardiac ganglia with both neurons and supporting cells, this capability was limited in the trunk neural crest to the more mature regions. These studies indicate a predetermination of the ectomesenchymal derivatives of the cranial neural crest and a possible competition of neural anlagen to form neurons and supporting cells in the cardiac ganglia.