[Multipotency of adult stem cells derived from human amnion]

Adult stem cells are drawing more and more attention due to the potential application in degenerative medicine without posing any moral problem. There is growing evidence showing that the human amnion contains various types of adult stem cell. Since amniotic tissue is readily available, it has the potential to be an important source of regenerative medicine material. In this study we tried to find multipotent adult stem cells in human amnion. We isolated stem cells from amniotic mesenchymal cells by limiting dilution assay. Similar to bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells, these cells displayed a fibroblast like appearance. They were positive for CD105, CD29, CD44, negative for haematopoietic (GlyA, CD31, CD34, CD45) and epithelial cell (pan-CK) markers. These stem cells had the potential to differentiate not only into osteogenic, adipogenic and endothelial lineages, but also hepatocyte-like cells and neural cells at the single-cell level depending on the culture conditions. They had the capacity for self-renewal and multilineage differentiation even after being expanded for more than 30 population doublings in vitro. So they may be an ideal stem cell source for inherited or degenerative diseases treatment.