Villous Chorion: A Potential Source for Pluripotent-like Stromal Cells

Multipotent stromal cells are isolated from various fetal sources and studied for their phenotypic characterization and ability to differentiate into different lineages.

In this study, we aimed to isolate mesenchymal stem or stromal cells (MSCs) from villous chorion, expand under clinical scale level, compared the potency with other source of fetal-derived MSCs and studied their differentiation capabilities to form all three germ layers.

Placenta obtained from C-section was used to isolate villous chorion-MSCs (VC-MSCs) were expanded up to tenth passage and their characteristics were assessed by proliferation rate and phenotypic characterization using fluorescence-activated cell sorting and also expanded MSCs were analyzed for differentiated into all three germ layers by cytochemical staining.

Stem cell isolated from VC yielded up to 2.16 × 10⁹ cells at second passage and 3.06-4.23 × 10⁴ cells/cm² at tenth passage. The total yield of cells with all three sources analysis showed that VC has a low yield at second passage compared to amniotic membrane and Wharton's jelly, but the VC-MSCs yield significant amount in lesser days. The phenotypic characterization revealed positive for CD73, CD90, and CD105 and negative for CD79, CD34, CD45, human leukocyte antigen-DR proving their stemness even at tenth passage. They can able to differentiate into ectodermic neural cells, endodermic hepatocytes, and mesodermal differentiation of chondrocytes, adipocytes, and osteogenic cells proving their ability to differentiate into all three germ layers.

This result suggests that the VC-MSCs are ideal source of stem cells with similar characteristics such as other adult stem cells. Thus, VC-derived MSCs can be potential clinical source in regenerative medicine.