Comparison of Two Fetal Stem Cells in Proliferation, Trilineage Differentiation, and Influence of Hypoxia

Lillian Bischof*, Sheng Zhou, M.D., Ming Pei, M.D. Ph.D.
Department of Orthopaedics, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation Category: Health Sciences (Poster presentation)

Student’s Major: Chemical Engineering

Articular cartilage possesses a limited ability to self-repair. Although autologous chondrocyte implantation is an established method to treat cartilage defects, there are several limitations to this method. Thus, the continued study of cell therapies such as cartilage tissue engineering may provide a novel approach to regenerative medicine. Synovium-derived stem cells (SDSCs) provide a promising source for cartilage tissue engineering as they have been shown to display good chondrogenic potential and less hypertrophic differentiation than other mesenchymal stem cells. Nuclear pulposus cells (NPCs) may prove to be another approach to cartilage tissue engineering. In this study, we hypothesized that fetal SDSCs and fetal NPCs would possess distinct differentiation potential, particularly for chondrogenic differentiation, and a hypoxic environment would improve the chondrogenic potential of fetal stem cells. Human passage 3 fetal SDSCs and fetal NPCs were cultured via standard protocol on plastic flasks and evaluated for adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic potential, as well as proliferation capacity using flow cytometry. Hypoxia (5% O2) environment was assessed for its influence on chondrogenic differentiation with normoxia (21% O2) as a control. As the study is in progress, we expect that both fetal stem cells exhibit distinct differentiation capacity and hypoxia will improve chondrogenic capacity.

Funding: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course