Umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (New York Blood Center Inc)

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.