Assessment of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cell Cultivation Using Fetal Bovine Serum or Platelet Lysate
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Wharton's jelly (WJ) and umbilical cord blood (UCB) are considered marvelous sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) due to their availability, simply isolated without pain and ethical issues. Additionally, UC-MSCs are more primitive than MSCs isolated from adult sources, thus opening new possibilities for cell therapies. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to develop a simple, economical, and efficient xenogenic-free protocol for the isolation and expansion of UC-MSCs to be compliant with good manufacturing practice (GMP) guidelines. METHODS/DESIGN: In this work, we used the explant-partial enzymatic digestion technique for WJ-MSCs and Ficoll-Paque density centrifugation for CB-MSC isolation. Human platelet lysate (HPL) was used as a replacement for fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is used in most protocols. RESULTS: We observed that the explants-partial enzymatic digestion technique is an effective protocol for MSC isolation from WJ, and HPL is a safe, powerful, and cost-effective substitute for FBS in the MSC propagation. Among all tested conditions, 10% HPL demonstrated the best growth rate, highest viability count, and highest expression level of a cluster of differentiation markers (CD). CONCLUSION: We concluded that WJ-MSCs are superior to UCB-MSCs in the matter of rapidity and homogeneity, and both of them expressed MSC-positive markers CD44 and CD73, suggesting that WJ is a source with greater potential for MSC isolation for clinical application.
Source: Cureus
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.78044
Authors: Gamila A Attaelmanan, Hiba B Khalil
Institution: Al-Neelain University
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4406846708