Wharton’s Jelly and Amniotic Membrane

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have a capacity for self-renewal and multi-potential differen-tiations. These cells are considered powerful sources for cell therapy in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. The cells can be isolated from various tissues; however, harvesting from human umbilical cord and amniotic membrane is easy and accessible source. Objective: To isolate and characterize the MSCs derived from human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly (WJ-MSC) and amniotic membrane (AM-MSC) with regard to their morphology, immunophenotype and me-sodermal differentiation potential in order to obtain an alternative source of MSC for therapeutic clinical applications. Methods: Fetal membranes and umbilical cords (n=3) were retrieved from healthy full-term women by elective cesarean delivery. Amniotic membrane and umbilical cord were separately minced and cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10 % FBS. After reaching 80 % of confluency, the umbilical cord WJ-MSC and AM-MSC were characterized by expression of cell surface markers with flowcytometry, stem cell gene expression with adipogenic/osteogenic potential. Results: Both WJ-MSC and AM-MSC were spindle-shaped cells, expressed MSC surface markers in flowcy-tometry and stem cell transcriptional factors (OCT4 and NANOG). After induction, the cells differentiated into adipogenic and osteogenic lineages