Background: The placenta is a very attractive source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for regenerative medicine due to readily availability, non-invasive acquisition, and avoidance of ethical issues. Isolating MSCs from parts of placenta tissue has obtained growing interest because they are assumed to exhibit different proliferation and differentiation potentials due to complex structures and functions of the placenta. The objective of this study was to isolate MSCs from different parts of the placenta and compare their characteristics.
Methods: Placenta was divided into amniotic epithelium (AE), amniotic membrane (AM), chorionic membrane (CM), chorionic villi (CV), chorionic trophoblast without villi (CT-V), decidua (DC), and whole placenta (Pla). Cells isolated from each layer were subjected to analyses for their morphology, proliferation ability, surface markers, and multi-lineage differentiation potential. MSCs were isolated from all placental layers and their characteristics were compared.
Findings: Surface antigen phenotype, morphology, and differentiation characteristics of cells from all layers indicated that they exhibited properties of MSCs. MSCs from different placental layers had different proliferation rates and differentiation potentials. MSCs from CM, CT-V, CV, and DC had better population doubling time and multi-lineage differentiation potentials compared to those from other layers.
Conclusions: Our results indicate that MSCs with different characteristics can be isolated from all layers of term placenta. These finding suggest that it is necessary to appropriately select MSCs from different placental layers for successful and consistent outcomes in clinical applications.