Investigating the potential of novel chemicals to expand and proliferate stem cells derived from perinatal derivatives

Abstract

Perinatal stem cells are pluripotent stem cells with the ability to differentiate into multiple cell types including muscle, bone and nervous tissue. It has been demonstrated that perinatal stem cells have the ability to treat a variety of diseases. Perinatal stem cells are collected from assorted biological sources including the placenta, umbilical cord blood and the amniotic membrane. However, their collection is finite. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find novel drugs that have the ability to increase expansion and proliferation of perinatal stem cells. To investigate this aim, first, perinatal stem cells were collected from the amniotic membrane and the umbilical cord blood. Then, MTT cell viability assay experiments were conducted to identify if treatment with various concentrations of JH III, 5’Aza, thio-SN38, and vitamin B3 had the potential to increase the proliferation of UCB HSCs and USSCs. The concentrations of the drugs that were found to increase cell proliferation of UCB HSCs and USSCs were further investigated by cell cycle analysis. Analysis of data indicated that UCB HSCs treated with thio-SN38 at 1 µM and 1.5µM, 5’Aza at 1 µM, 0.5 µM and 0.1 µM and vitamin B3 at 1 mM increased cell proliferation. Also, USSCs treated with 5’Aza at 1 µM, 0.5 µM and 0.1 µM, thio-SN38 at 0.5 µM, vitamin B3 at 2.5 mM and 5 mM, and JH III at 7.5 µM, 3.25 µM and 0.75 µM had increased cell proliferation. For further work, it would be worthwhile to investigate if combinatorial treatment with other possible epigenetic modifiers is more effective than individual drug treatment.