Comparative analysis of biological characteristics of adult mesenchymal stem cells with different tissue origins

Objective: To invest the differences among mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from different tissues and their impacts on clinical applications. Methods: In this study, MSCs were isolated from adipose tissue (AD), umbilical cord tissue (UC), and menstrual blood (Men) and compared their biological characteristics in terms of proliferation capacity, passage capacity, colony formation, and surface markers were compared. Results: The stem cells (SCs) obtained from different sources were all characterized as MSCs, but demonstrated some differences. Umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UCMSCs) were able to overcome density inhibition. The proliferation rate decreased in the order UCMSCs> MenSCs> ADSCs, while the colony-forming ability decreased in the order MenSCs> ADSCs> UCMSCs. Based on gene-expression data for MSCs from different sources within the same donor, 768 MenSC genes were found that were specifically upregulated or downregulated compared with bone marrow-derived MSCs and UCMSCs, most of which were involved in cell function-related pathways. In addition, MenSCs appeared to be superior in terms of immune inflammation, stress response, and neural differentiation potentials, but weaker in terms of osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation capacities, compared with UCMSCs and bone marrow-derived MSCs. Conclusions: MenSCs have higher extraction efficiency, colony-forming ability, and long time passage capacity. Although the proliferation capacity is inferior to UCMSCs.