Umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) have a spindle-shaped morphology and retain a normal karyotype for up to 20 passages. UCB-MSCs express mesenchymal stem cell-related antigens and are negative for hematopoietic markers. They also express typical stem cell markers and can be differentiated into osteocytes and chondrocytes.
Umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) were derived from freshly collected (up to 2 hours) cord blood (CB). CB was subjected to density gradient centrifugation on Ficoll-Paque solution at 400g for 30 min. Mononuclear cells (MNC) were isolated from the interphase, washed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), plated and cultured for one week in primary culture medium comprised of low glucose Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM-LG), supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS, 20%) and dexamethasone (10-7 M). Nonadherent cells were removed and the remaining cells were fed weekly with culture medium without dexamethasone.