Endothelial differentiation potential of human amnion-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hAMSC)

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are multipotent cells that potentially promote angiogenesis. Especially MSC derived from the amnionic membrane of human term placentas (hAMSC) are promising candidates for a therapeutic use in vascular diseases, as cells can be isolated using non-invasive methods and are immunologically tolerated in vivo. In this study, we wanted to evaluate the endothelial differentiation potential of hAMSC. We used microarrays to investigate the effect of endothelial culture conditions on gene expression of hAMSC. Mesenchymal stromal cells were isolated from from the amnionic membrane of three different human term placentas (hAMSC 1, 2, 3). To investigate the endothelial differentiation potential, aliquots of passage 1 cells were cultured in endothelial cell medium EGM-2 (induced hAMSC 1, 2, 3) or in control medium DMEM (non-induced hAMSC 1, 2, 3) for 14 days before RNA isolation.