Cloning of human cord blood-mesenchymal stem cells for isolation of enriched cell population of higher proliferation and differentiation potential.

Heterogeneity of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) imposes limitations for their in vitro expansion and accounts for the lack of reproducibility in some clinical studies. So, this study was designed to isolate and enrich clones of multipotent and self-renewing MSCs from cord blood (CB). Enriched clones with higher proliferation and differentiation potential provide regenerative cells suitable for various clinical demands. MSCA and MSCB original (progenitor) cells were isolated from CB samples, and single cells were cloned by limiting dilution method, in mouse embryonic fibroblast conditioned media. Original MSCs and their single-cell derived clones were characterized by identifying their proliferation rate, immunophenotyping of surface antigens, expression of pluripotency and proliferation genes (Oct4, Sox2, Nanog, KLF4, c-Myc, and PDGFRA), and differentiation potential into multiple lineages (osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic). Some single-cell clones of MSCA showed a higher proliferation rate and greater differentiation potential than their original cells. However, original MSCB cells were of greater proliferation and differentiation potential than their derived single-cell clones, except for one clone which had comparable results. Cloning of MSCs was attainable when cultured in mouse embryonic fibroblast conditioned media. Single clones with higher proliferation and differentiation potential than their original progenitor cells were obtained by cloning of poorly functioning MSCs progenitor cells, enabling the selection of more therapeutically efficacious MSCs with better performance in clinical applications. Moreover, this study draws attention to the importance of CD105 as a possible MSCs biomarker associated with the multilineage commitment of MSCs.