Human umbilical cord blood cells express neurotrophic factors

Freshly isolated or culture-expanded human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMNCs) have been known to express neural phenotypes in vitro and to differentiate into neural cells and improve neurological function recovery after being administrated into rodent models of neurological diseases. However, the mechanism of action remains unclear. The present study observed that CBMNCs expressed higher level mRNAs of several neurotrophic factors than adult peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). In addition, a significantly increase in the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-4/5 (NT4/5) was found in culture supernatants of CBMNCs compared to that of PBMNCs. These findings indicate that CBMNCs express several neurotrophic factors and suggest that the neurotrophic factors secreted by CBMNCs may be responsible for amelioration of central nervous system deficits in animal models after CBMNC administration.