Our previous research showed that, in addition to the tissue of origin also the age of the stem cell donor is an important determinant of the level of cell plasticity. In this regard, human Wharton's jelly (WJ), a part of the umbilical cord and hence the earliest postnatal tissue available, constitutes a particularly attractive human stem cells source. Additionally, our global gene expression data showed that among four mesoderm-derived stem cell (MSC) populations: human adipose-MSC (hAT-MSC), human bone marrow-MSC (hBM-MSC) and hSKP, hWJ-MSC showed the highest expression of genes involved in liver development. Gene ontology analyses of hWJ-MSC demonstrated a significant enrichment of functional gene classes involved in liver development. Approximately 25% of the genes involved in proliferation of hepatocytes and 40% of the genes involved in liver development are significantly increased in hWJ-MSC compared to hAT-MSC and hSKP, respectively.
This data supports the idea that hWJ-MSC are very promising mesoderm-derived stem cells to differentiate into hepatocyte-like cells. Currently we are examining this hypothesis in an in vitro setting and we have already shown that indeed hWJs express protein markers of liver progenitors but not of adult hepatocytes.
Researchers
- Prof. Joery De Kock
PhD student Karolien Buyl -
Associated Projects
Relevant Publications
- De Kock J., Najar M., Bolleyn J., Al Battah F., Raicevic G., Govaere O., Branson S., Jagtap S., Gaspar JA., Roskams T., Sachinidis A., Lagneaux L., Vanhaecke T. and Rogiers V. (2012) Assessment of the intrinsic pluripotency of mesoderm-derived stem cells from different niches. Alternatives to Animal Testing and Experimentation 29, 531-539.
- De Kock J., Najar M., Bolleyn J., Al Battah F., Rodrigues R.M., Buyl K., Raicevic G., Govaee O., Branson S., Meganahan K., Gaspar J.A., Roskams T., Sachinidis A., Lagneaux L., Vanhaecke T., Rogiers V. (2013) “Mesoderm-derived stem cells: the link between the transcriptome and their differentiation potential”. Stem Cells and Development 21(18): 3309-3323.
- Buyl K.*, De Kock J.*, Najar M., Lagneaux L., Branson S., Vanhaecke T. and Rogiers V. (2014) Characterization of hepatic markers in human Wharton's Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Toxicol In Vitro 28(1):113-119. [*equally contributing first authors]
- Buyl K., Vanhaecke T., Desmae T., Lagneaux L., Rogiers V., Najar M.* and De Kock J.* (2014) Evaluation of a new standardized enzymatic isolation protocol for human umbilical cord-derived stem cells. Toxicol In Vitro, In press. [*equally contributing last authors]