Comparative study of the methods of extracting mesenchymal stem cells from cryopreserved Wharton's Jelly.

The Wharton's Jelly (WJ) is an established source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). We compared 3 methods of extracting WJ-MSC from cryopreserved tissue and determined that enzymatic digestion of the WJ yielded the most viable MSC, compared to the explant and mechanical digestion methods. The enzymatically-released WJ-MSC conformed to the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) criteria: displayed plastic-adherence, co-expressed CD73, CD90, CD105 and were negative for hematopoietic lineage cell markers.