Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 2014 Sep 4. [Epub ahead of print]

A Porous Membrane Mediated Isolation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Human Embryonic Stem Cells.

Hong KS¹, Bae D, Choi Y, Kang SW, Moon SH, Lee HT, Chung HM.

Abstract

Pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) acquire mesenchymal characteristics during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. Here, we report a simple and an efficient isolation method for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from hESCs undergoing EMT using a commercialized porous membrane transwell culture insert. Suspension culture of hESC colonies results in the formation of embryoid bodies (EBs), which adhered on the upper compartment of 8 μm porous membrane in the presence of EMG2-MV media. The population migrating through the permeable membrane to the lower compartment not only exhibited EMT markers but also expressed high levels of a panel of typical MSC surface antigen markers, and demonstrated multipotent differentiation capability. In addition, they have a prolonged proliferation capacity without characteristics and chromosomal changes. Furthermore, the isolated MSCs significantly enhanced cardiac functions in a rat model of myocardial infarction (MI) as measured by the left ventricle (LV) wall thickness (MI control, 32.9 ± 3.2% vs. hESCs-MSCs, 38.7 ± 2.4%), scar length (MI control, 46.1 ± 2.5% vs. hESCs-MSCs, 41.8 ± 1.3%), fibrosis area (MI control, 28.9 ± 3.5% vs. hESCs-MSCs, 34.3 ± 1.6%) and capillaries density. Our findings demonstrate an ease with which hESCs-MSCs can be effectively isolated using the porous membrane, which overcomes the lack of availability of MSCs for therapeutic applications in various diseased animal models.