Umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells: The ideal seed cells for bone tissue engineering? / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To discuss the possibility and prospect of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells as seed cells of bone tissue engineering. DATA SOURCES: References came from Medline and Embase between January 1980 and December 2005 with the keywords of "umbilical cord blood,mesenchymal stem cell,bone tissue engineering" in English. Besides, CBM and CBMdisc databases were retrieved by computer for the articles of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells in bone tissue engineering published between January 1990 and April 2004 with the same key words in Chinese. STUDY SELECTION: Related articles of culture and identification of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells and the progress of bone tissue engineering. Inclusive criteria: ①basic research of culture and identification of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells, and ②the progress of bone tissue engineering. Exclusive criteria: reduplicative studies. DATA EXTRACTION: There were 47 relevant articles of umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells and bone tissue engineering, and 30 were accorded with the inclusive criteria. The excluded 17 were due to the reduplicative contents. DATA SYNTHESIS: Under special conditioned medium, umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells not only could differentiate into osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic cells, but also transform into nerve cells, liver cells, somatic muscle cells and so on. Umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells were safe and easy to obtain from umbilical cord blood, safe to transplant, easy to expand in vitro, stable in biological characteristics, which met the requirements of bone tissue engineering. CONCLUSION: Umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells are a promising alternative of ideal seed cells of future bone tissue engineering on the basis of its characteristics.