Functional characterization of calcium-signaling pathways of human skin-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from adult human tissues are able to differentiate into various specialized cell types. In research, they can therefore be used like embryonic cells but without the ethical restrictions. Among the various human tissues, skin as a source is characterized by great accessibility and availability using noninvasive procedures and is without the risk of oncogenesis after transplantation. The recent isolation of MSCs has shown the lack of knowledge regarding their specific features, including the calcium-signaling pathways.

In this study, we isolated MSCs from human skin biopsies (S-MSCs) and characterized them phenotypically and their calcium-signaling pathways by the means of Ca2+ imaging and video microscopic experiments.

The cytofluorimetric analysis of the expression of surface markers on S-MSCs revealed that they express the normal pattern present on MSCs. Interestingly, these cells appeared to be successfully cryopreserved at early passages. Calcium imaging on single S-MSCs shows that these cells did not display significant spontaneous activity or a response to a depolarizing agent. However, ATP or acetylcholine-induced intracellular calcium increase via ionotropic or metabotropic receptors, respectively.

The results presented here reveal that S-MSCs show morphological and functional features that make them useful as an in vitro model to study cell differentiation.