In this study, Wharton's jelly was isolated from selected freshly collected umbilical cord, shredded and adhered to culture flasks. MSCBM, α-MEM and IMDM medium containing 5% platelet lysate were used for culture respectively. The medium was changed every 5 days. Up to 8 passage expansion were carried out. The morphology, growth cycle, proliferation function, doubling time, differentiation function, and cell surface markers of different passages were studied.
Cell Morphology Observation And Proliferation Effects
First, cell morphology observation revealed that there were no significant differences in the morphology of P0 to P5 passage cells cultured in all three different basal media (P > 0.05). The difference in morphology was more significant after P5, showing that the MSCBM and α-MEM cultured cells had uniform morphology and sizes, radial, and obvious three-dimensional looking, On the other hand,IMDM cultured cells had larger areas than MSCBM andα-MEM cultured cells༌and the cells are flat and uneven in shapes༌had rather poor three-dimensional looking,. The measurement results under microscope show that, from P6 to P8 passage, the volumes of IMDM cultured cells are larger than that of MSCBM and α-MEM cultured cells (0.01 < P < 0.05), while the MSCBM and α-MEM cultured cells showed no significant difference when compared with P0 to P5 cultures (P > 0.05) (Fig. 1).
By observing the same passage cell proliferation in different culture systems (Table 1), it was found that the numbers of cells obtained by MSCBM and α-MEM culture were higher than that of the IMDM (0.01 < P < 0.05), but there was no significant different between the first two kinds of media (P > 0.05).The doubling time of P3, P5, and P8 passage cells (Table 2) indicated that it was significantly longer in IMDM than in MSCBM and α-MEM (0.01 < P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in cell doubling time between the latter two (P > 0.05).The combination of growth curve determination and cell doubling time calculation revealed that the cell proliferation functions of the three culture media are ranked as MSCBM, α-MEM, and IMDM from high to low. The cell proliferation function of MSCBM culture was significantly higher than that of IMDM (0.01 < P < 0.05), but was not significantly different from α-MEM (P > 0.05).
The clonal formation rate and the size of the formed clonal cell mass also reflect the cell proliferation functions (Table 3). The number of clones formed by P8 cells cultured in different media are different (the cell cluster with more than 15 cells was counted as one cloned cell cluster). After 60 hours in culture, the clonal cluster numbers formed by the cells in different media, and the cell numbers in each clonal cluster༌are different. The clonal cluster numbers and the number of cells in each clone cluster formed by MSCBM cultured cells are higher than those formed by cells cultured in either α-MEM or IMDM (0.01 < P < 0.05).
Figure 1. The morphological observations and growth curves.
Photographs of phase-contrast (a, b, c) and gentian violet staining (d, e, f) of P8 passage cells cultured in MSCBM, IMDM, and α-MEM. g, h, and i are the growth curves of P3, P5, and P8 cells cultured in IMDM, MSCBM, and α-MEM, respectively.
Table 1
The number of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells expanded at different passages (X 106 / T75)
| P0 | P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | P5 | P6 | P7 | P8 |
α-MEM | 0.48 ± 0.05 | 2.85 ± 0.15 | 3.87 ± 0.19 | 3.98 ± 0.21 | 3.95 ± 0.29 | 3.89 ± 0.31 | 3.59 ± 0.33 | 3.55 ± 0.34 | 3.60 ± 0.20 |
IMDM | 0.48 ± 0.02 | 2.80 ± 0.17 | 3.50 ± 0.16 | 3.82 ± 0.31 | 3.70 ± 0.31 | 3.51 ± 0.26 | 2.86 ± 0.27 | 2.60 ± 0.21 | 2.85 ± 0.23 |
MSCBM | 0.70 ± 0.01 | 3.76 ± 0.19 | 4.47 ± 0.17 | 4.82 ± 0.25 | 4.88 ± 0.38 | 4.83 ± 0.27 | 4.87 ± 0.31 | 4.85 ± 0.30 | 4.87 ± 0.24 |
Table 2
The doubling time of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells of different passages (h)
| P3 | P5 | P8 |
α-MEM | 21.8 ± 2.5 | 22.2.3 ± 2.3 | 35.8 ± 3.8 |
IMDM | 28.5 ± 3.3 | 26.8 ± 2.2 | 41.6 ± 4.1 |
MSCBM | 20.2 ± 2.3 | 21.1 ± 1.8 | 33.5 ± 4.2 |
Table 3
Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell clone formation data (clones / 10 cm dish and cell number/clone)
| clones / 10 cm dish | cell number/clone |
α-MEM | 19.6 ± 0.4 | 17.6 ± 1.1 |
IMDM | 17.5 ± 0.6 | 15.6 ± 1.3 |
MSCBM | 23.5 ± 0.6 | 21.5 ± 0.9 |
Comparison Of Cell Differentiation Functions
Cells cultured in three different media all have strong differentiation functions. Counting differentiated cells under microscope revealed that the number of cells differentiated into osteoblasts and chondrocytes by P8 cells cultured in different media was not significantly different (P > 0.05). However, the cell numbers of adipocyte differentiation by MSCBM and α-MEM cultured P8 cells were significantly higher than that of the same-passage cells cultured with IMDM (0.01 < P < 0.05) (Fig. 2).
Figure 2 Osteogenic, adipogenic and chondrogenic differentiation by P8 hUC-MSCs.
a, b, and c are Alizarin S staining for osteogenic differentiation of cells cultured in IMDM, MSCBM, and α-MEM M, respectively, d is a negative control; e, f, and g are Oil Red staining for adipogenic differentiation of IMDM, MSCBM, and α-MEM cultured cells, respectively, H is a negative control; i, j, and k are Toluidine blue staining for chondrogenic differentiation of IMDM, MSCBM, and α-MEM cultured cells, l is a negative control.
Comparison of cell surface marker detection
The detection of cell surface markers by flow-cytometry showed that cells of different passages cultured in IMDM, MSCBM and α-MEM all positively expressed CD73, CD90 and CD105 at ratios over 99%. Meanwhile, the expressions of CD34 and CD45 were both negative (<2%). The difference between different media was not significant (P > 0.05) (Table 4).
Table 4
Expression ratios of cell surface markers by different passage cells cultured in IMDM, MSCBM, and α-MEM.
Passage | Medium | CD34 | CD45 | CD73 | CD90 | CD105 |
P1 | α-MEM | 0.58 ± 0.06 | 0.29 ± 0.08 | 99.43 ± 0.02 | 99.92 ± 0.03 | 99.71 ± 0.02 |
IMDM | 0.49 ± 0.09 | 0.42 ± 0.01 | 99.71 ± 0.05 | 99.98 ± 0.06 | 99.86 ± 0.04 |
MSCBM | 0.83 ± 0.05 | 0.78 ± 0.01 | 99.56 ± 0.01 | 99.97 ± 0.01 | 99.85 ± 0.02 |
P3 | α-MEM | 0.49 ± 0.06 | 0.79 ± 0.05 | 99.73 ± 0.04 | 99.93 ± 0.02 | 99.87 ± 0.01 |
IMDM | 1.05 ± 0.04 | 0.97 ± 0.02 | 99.87 ± 0.01 | 99.98 ± 0.01 | 99.96 ± 0.02 |
MSCBM | 0.36 ± 0.02 | 0.19 ± 0.02 | 99.95 ± 0.02 | 99.99 ± 0.03 | 99.86 ± 0.01 |
P5 | α-MEM | 1.18 ± 0.03 | 0.81 ± 0.02 | 99.98 ± 0.02 | 99.99 ± 0.02 | 99.95 ± 0.02 |
IMDM | 1.23 ± 0.02 | 0.66 ± 0.01 | 99.74 ± 0.01 | 99.96 ± 0.02 | 99.85 ± 0.01 |
MSCBM | 0.43 ± 0.03 | 0.14 ± 0.02 | 99.73 ± 0.02 | 99.90 ± 0.04 | 99.74 ± 0.01 |
P8 | α-MEM | 0.58 ± 0.03 | 0.21 ± 0.01 | 99.85 ± 0.01 | 99.83 ± 0.01 | 99.87 ± 0.02 |
IMDM | 0.23 ± 0.06 | 0.19 ± 0.04 | 99.89 ± 0.02 | 99.86 ± 0.04 | 99.89 ± 0.04 |
MSCBM | 0.49 ± 0.04 | 0.56 ± 0.03 | 99.68 ± 0.05 | 99.99 ± 0.04 | 99.69 ± 0.03 |