Human neural crest-derived postnatal cells exhibit remarkable embryonic attributes eitherin vitroorin vivo
1 Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Histology, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Division, (TERM), Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy
2 Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM), Developmental Disorders Program, Via P. Castellino 111, Naples, Italy
3 Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Human Anatomy, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
4 Department of Dentistry, Oral Biology and Surgery, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy
5 Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Science, University of Perugia, Via del Giochetto, 06126 Perugia, Italy
6 Interdepartmental Stem Cell Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, O&N I Herestraat 49, Leuven, Belgium
#These authors contributed equally to this study.
§This study is associated with patent # PCT/EP2007/001416
Abstract
During human embryonic development, odontogenic tissues, deriving from the neural crest, remain undifferentiated until the adult age. This study was aimed at characterising the cells of the follicle enveloping the dental germ, due to its direct origin from neural crests. Sixty dental follicles were collected from patients aged 18 to 45 years. This research has clarified that dental follicles, if extracted in a very early stage, when dental roots did not start to be formed, contain a lineage of cells, characterised by a high degree of plasticity in comparison with other adult stem cell populations. In particular, we found that these cells share the following features with ES: (i) high levels of embryonic stem cell markers (CD90, TRA1-60, TRA1-81, OCT-4, CD133, and SSEA-4); (ii) mRNA transcripts for Nanog and Rex-1; (iii) broader potency, being able to differentiate in cell types of all three germ layer, including smooth and skeletal muscle, osteoblasts, neurons, glial cells, and adipocytes; (iv) high levels of telomerase activity; (v) ability to form embryoid bodies; (vi) ability, after injection in murine blastocysts, to be localised within the inner cell mass; (vii) no teratoma formation after injection; (viii)in vivotissue formation after transplantation. Our results demonstrate that these cells represent a very easy accessible and extraordinary source of pluripotent cells and point out the fact that they own the cardinal feature of embryonic stem cells.
Keywords
- Human adult stem cells
- neural crest
- embryonic markers
- differentiation
- pluripotency
- embryoid bodies
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