Stem cells are found in all multi-cellular organism. They retain the ability to renew and can differentiate into a diverse range of specialized cell types. How stem cells can be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture, their use in medical therapy has been proposed. In particular, embryonic cell lines, autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning, and highly plastic adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow are touted as promising candidates.
Human umbilical cord blood cells have many advantages as grafts for cell transplantation because of the immaturity of newborn cells compared with adult cells. In contrast to their hematopoietic and mesenchymal potential, it remains unclear whether cord blood cells have endodermal competence. Here, in order to use umbilical cord cells for transplantation into the damaged liver cells, we investigated the hepatic potential of umbilical cord blood cells both in vitro and in vivo. We determine the most effective conditions that lead to umbilical cord blood cells to produce albumin. The novel primary culture system supplemented with a combination of growth / differentiation factors, about 50% of umbilical cord blood cells in 21-day cultures expressed albumin, and albumin cells coexpressed hepatocyte lineage markers. The albumin expressing cells could proliferate in the culture system.
In addition, the liver cells for transplantation in a model of severe combined immunodeficient injured mice infected cord blood cells in advanced functional hepatocytes in the liver, which was published human serum albumin in recipient mice. In conclusion, this study shows that human umbilical cord blood is a source of hepatic progenitor cell transplantation. Our findings may have relevance to clinical use of umbilical cord blood derived cell transplantation as a novel therapeutic option for liver failure.