HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

From Cell Biology to Tissue Engineering

 

Membranes derived from human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly stem cells as novel bioengineered tissue-like constructs

B.D. Jaimes-Parra1,2, I. Garzón1,3, V. Carriel1,3, D. Durand-Herrera1, M.A. Martín-Piedra1,3, J.M. García1,3, M.C. Sánchez-Quevedo1,3, M. Alaminos1,3 and A. Campos1,3

1Tissue Engineering Group, Department of Histology, 2PhD programme in Biomedicine, Escuela de Posgrado, University of Granada and 3Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs, Granada, Spain

Offprint requests to: Dr. I. Garzón, Department of Histology. Faculty of Medicine. University of Granada, Avenida de la Investigación 11, E18016, Granada, Spain. e-mail: igarzon@ugr.es


Summary. Cell-derived matrices were recently described as novel biomaterials generated by human cells allowed to grow and synthetize their own extracellular matrix in culture. In the present work, we generated and evaluated a novel tissue-like substitute (WDM) consisting of a membrane derived from cultured human Wharton's jelly stem cells. WDM were evaluated ex vivo and in vivo by histochemistry and immuno-histochemistry for several mesenchymal cell markers and fibrillar and non-fibrillar extracellular matrix components. Results show that WDM were hetero-geneous and consisted of dense cell-poor areas surrounded by cell-rich zones with abundant HWJSC. Histological analyses demonstrated that cell-poor areas were very rich in fibrillar and non-fibrillar extracellular matrix components such as collagen and proteoglycans, and cells in the WDM were highly viable and mostly PCNA-positive. HWJSC in the WDM expressed all markers of this cell type, including CD90, CD105, pan cytokeratin and CK8. In vivo analysis showed that the WDM was highly biocompatible and grafting this membrane in the muscle of laboratory rats was not associated to increased inflammation, necrosis, tumorigenesis or other side effects, while cells properly integrated at the damage site and showed high proliferation index. These results suggest that the structure and composition of the extracellular matrix of these novel WDM could reproduce the situation of native human tissues and that WDM implanted in vivo are highly biocompatible and rapidly integrate in the host tissues. For these reasons, we hypothesize that WDM could be used in regenerative medicine protocols. Histol Histopathol 33, 147-156 (2018)

Key words: Tissue engineering, Wharton's jelly stem cells, Membranes

DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-897