Am J Stem Cells. 2019 Aug 15;8(2):38-51. eCollection 2019.

Xeno-free trans-differentiation of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells into glial and neuronal cells.

Elgamal A¹, Althani A A², Abd-Elmaksoud A¹, Kassab M³, Farag A¹, Lashen S¹, Gabr MM⁴, Zakaria MM⁴, Alissawi MM⁴, Ismail HEA⁵, Abd El Galil A⁵, Caceci T⁶, Cenciarelli C C⁷, Marei HE¹.

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are undifferentiated cells that have the ability of self-renewal and trans-differentiation into other cell types. They hold out hope for finding a cure for many diseases. Nevertheless, there are still some obstacles that limit their clinical transplantation. One of these obstacles are the xenogeneic substances added in either proliferation or differentiation media with subsequent immunogenic and infectious transmission problems. In this study, we aimed to replace fetal bovine serum (FBS), the main nutrient source for MSC proliferation with xeno-free blood derivatives. We tested the effect of human activated pure platelet-rich plasma (P-PRP) and advanced platelet-rich fibrin (A-PRF) on the proliferation of human adipose derived-MSCs (AD-MSCs) at different concentrations. For the induction of MSC neural differentiation, we used human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at different concentrations in combination with P-PRP to effect xeno-free/species-specific neuronal/glial differentiation and we found that media with 10% CSF and 10% PRP promoted glial differentiation, while media with only 10% PRP induced a neuron-like phenotype.