Induction of mesenchyme-like and epithelial-like cells from human amniotic fluid stem cells

Human amniotic fluid stem cells are considered to be a very promising cell source, due to their high proliferation rates, their pluripotent differentiation potential, the finding that they do not induce tumor formation and the fact that they do not raise the ethical concerns associated with hESCs.This protocol demonstrates that the expression of the mesenchymal markers CD29 and CD44 and the epithelial markers CD51 and ZO-1 , with the podocyte markers CD2AP and NPHS2 can be induced in these cells via incubation with EGF/PDGF BB and FGF 4/HGF, respectively. Podocytes are visceral epithelial cells in the kidneys, which form the essential part of the glomerular filtration barrier.