Amniotic fluid and placental stem cells

The amniotic fluid and the placenta are unique sources of different populations of stem cells--mesenchymal, hematopoietic, trophoblastic--and, possibly, of more primitive stem cells. Although much of the amniotic cavity/fluid and the placenta share a common embryonic origin, the specific origins of the stem cells found in these two compartments remain to be determined. Accordingly, it is not yet known whether all or part of these two stem-cell subsets are actually the same. The multilineage potential of the different stem cell populations from these two sources has begun to be described but still much remains to be learned. Thus, it is not surprising that clinical applications related to the use of these cells have yet to be reported. Nevertheless, fertile experimental work from many different groups has introduced a number of promising novel therapeutic concepts utilizing these cells, such as in tissue engineering, cell transplantation, and gene therapy.     

卵巢中可能存在的干细胞及其功能特性的研究进展

干细胞是具有自我更新和分化潜能特性的一类细胞。性腺作为将遗传物质传递给子代的唯一组织,有体细胞和生殖细胞两种细胞类型。继往的研究发现,在卵巢中存在有间充质干细胞,卵泡膜干细胞、生殖干细胞以及具有干细胞特性的黄素化颗粒细胞。本文对卵巢中可能存在的这些干细胞及其促进卵母细胞的生成、发育、受损卵巢的修复以及维持卵泡结构等功能作一综述。     

Mesenchymal stem cells for restoring endometrial function: An infertility perspective

BackgroundMesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be derived from several tissues such as bone marrow, placenta, adipose tissue, or endometrial tissue. MSCs gain a lot of attention for cell‐based therapy due to their characteristics including differentiation ability and immunomodulatory effect. Preclinical and clinical studies demonstrated that MSCs can be applied to treat female infertility by improving of the functions of ovary and uterus. This mini‐ review focuses on the current study of treatment of endometrial infertility by using MSCs.MethodsThe present study performed a literature review focusing on the effect of MSCs for treatment of women infertility caused by endometrial dysfunction.ResultsBone marrow‐, umbilical cord‐, adipose‐, amniotic‐, and menstruation‐derived MSCs enhance endometrial cell proliferation, injury repairs as well as reducing scar formation. The beneficial mechanism probably via immunomodulatory, cell differentiation, stimulates endometrial cell proliferation and down‐regulation of fibrosis genes. The major advantage of using MSCs is to improve endometrial functions resulting in increased implantation and pregnancy.ConclusionsMSCs exhibit a potential for endometrial infertility treatment. Adipose‐ and menstruation‐derived stem cells show advantages over other sources because the cells can be derived easily and do not causes graft rejection after autologous transplantation.     

The magic behind stem cells

This review article summarizes historical development of stem cell research, presents current knowledge on the plasticity potential of both embryonic and adult stem cells and discusses on the future of stem cell based therapies.     

子宫内膜干细胞研究进展

子宫内膜干细胞是一种成体干细胞,具有自我更新、多向分化和高度增殖的潜能。目前大量研究已证实子宫内膜中存在干细胞样细胞,从而使子宫内膜具有很强的再生能力;同时,研究还显示子宫内膜干细胞的功能和生存环境异常可能与子宫内膜异位症、子宫内膜癌等妇科疾病有关。虽然子宫内膜干细胞的生物学特性和功能仍需进一步的研究来阐述和证实,但其子宫内膜再生和分化为其他组织的潜能已得到越来越多的关注,并可能成为子宫内膜过薄和内膜病变患者进行内膜修复替代治疗的手段;同时可为子宫内膜异位症、子宫内膜癌等提供新的研究思路。     

干细胞诱导分化为生殖细胞的研究进展

干细胞具有多系谱分化的可塑性,是再生医学的研究热点。通过各种调控、诱导手段从干细胞获得生殖细胞,为生殖细胞发生与发育障碍导致的不孕不育患者带来希望。本文将探讨从各种干细胞[胚胎干细胞(embryonic stem cells,ESCs)、诱导多能干细胞(induced pluripotent stem cells,i PSCs)、原始生殖细胞(primordial germ cells,PGCs)、精原干细胞(spermatogonial stem cells,SSCs)和卵巢干细胞(ovarian stem cells,OSCs)]获得生殖系细胞的研究进展并提出其临床应用前景与挑战。     

Stem cells in gynaecology

Currently, there is enormous interest in stem cells as a new treatment modality for regenerative medicine, commencing when human embryonic stem (hES) cells were first cultured from spare in vitro fertilisation-derived embryos. Emerging evidence also suggests that somatic stem cells may have greater differentiation potential. Stem cell research is now in an exciting phase of development and has the potential to dramatically influence therapeutics as hES cell derivatives and/or adult stem cells are applied to regenerative medicine or to deliver gene therapy. Human ES cells show apparently limitless proliferative potential and differentiation capacity into all tissue types. Adult stem cells are rare cells, which maintain the tissue in which they reside. The challenges facing the use of hES cells and adult stem cells in medicine are highlighted and examples of their use in laboratory studies and the clinic are given. Adult stem cells have been identified in diverse tissues, including human bone marrow, breast, prostate, brain and liver. We hypothesised that adult stem cells reside in the endometrium, a highly proliferative, cyclically regenerating tissue. Our research has demonstrated, for the first time, that human endometrium contains a small population of epithelial cells (0.22%) and stromal cells (1.25%) that exhibit stem/progenitor cell behaviour in vitro; clonogenicity. The progeny in these colonies have been characterised and growth factors supporting clonogenicity identified. The goal is to examine the role of putative endometrial stem/progenitor cells in proliferative disorders of human endometrium, such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer, and the action of hormone-replacement therapy on the post-menopausal endometrium.     

干细胞治疗卵巢早衰的研究进展

卵巢早衰（POF）是由多种病因导致的卵泡功能衰竭。大约80%患者属于特发性POF。POF治疗棘手,近年国内外取得了应用干细胞恢复卵巢功能及生育力等方面的动物试验成果,为POF患者卵巢功能及生育功能的恢复带来了希望。干细胞包括胚胎干细胞和成体干细胞,胚胎干细胞治疗因其引起伦理争议而受到限制。目前成体干细胞治疗包括生殖干细胞、骨髓间充质干细胞和胎儿间充质干细胞的治疗。干细胞可能通过分化为卵母细胞或通过旁分泌抑制卵泡凋亡来修复受损卵巢。现对POF的干细胞治疗进展进行综述。     

妊娠晚期羊水间充质干细胞生物学特性研究

目的：研究妊娠晚期羊水来源的胎儿间充质干细胞（MSCs）的体外分离、培养及其生物学特性。方法：贴壁培养法培养妊娠晚期羊水中的胎儿MSCs，形成细胞集落后用细胞刮刀刮下细胞重新培养、扩增，用倒置相差显微镜观察细胞形态．通过细胞表面抗原、细胞核型分析、细胞因子检测等证实该细胞是否为胎儿MSCs，以及不同代细胞之间是否有生物学特性上的差异，并通过绘制生长曲线，比较各代细胞的生长趋势。结果：用贴壁培养法分离、培养出的细胞呈梭形，不同代胎儿MSCs表面抗原、细胞核型相同，不同羊水标本来源的胎儿MSCs均表达胚胎干细胞相关蛋白（Oct-d），第8代（P8代）细胞比P2、P5代细胞生长缓慢。结论：通过上述方法可以成功分离、培养妊娠晚期羊水来源的胎儿MSCs，不同代细胞间生物学特性基本相同。     

Generation of germ cells from pluripotent stem cells in mammals

Background

The germ cell lineage transmits genetic and epigenetic information to the next generation. Primordial germ cells (PGCs), the early embryonic precursors of sperm or eggs, have been studied extensively. Recently, in vitro models of PGC induction have been established in the mouse. Many attempts are reported to enhance our understanding of PGC development in other mammals, including human.

Methods

Here, original and review articles that have been published on PubMed are reviewed in order to give an overview of the literature that is focused on PGC development, including the specification of in vivo and in vitro in mice, human, porcine, and bovine.

Results

Mammalian PGC development, in vivo and in vitro, have been studied primarily by using the mouse model as a template to study PGC specification in other mammals, including human, porcine, and bovine.

Conclusion

The growing body of published works reveals similarities, as well as differences, in PGC establishment in and between mouse and human.     

Therapeutic applications of embryonic stem cells

Embryonic stem (ES) cells have the potential to proliferate indefinitely in culture and can differentiate into any cell type. The emergence of ES cell lines from human embryos in the past 5 years has attracted profound public and scientific interest, given the far-reaching potential applications of these cells in regenerative medicine. In the future, it is possible that human ES (hES) cells might serve as an unlimited source of cells for transplantation therapy under conditions that result from cell degeneration or malfunction, and that genetically manipulated hES cells might serve as vectors to carry and express genes in target organs following transplantation in the course of gene therapy. This chapter reviews the properties of hES cells and their potential advantages and limitations for cell-based therapies. We also describe various approaches that might be utilized with hES cells to avoid potential immune rejection after allogeneic transplantation and hence circumvent the need for systemic immune suppression. Up-to-date research in establishing committed tissue-specific progenitors from ES cells and evidence of their function after transplantation in various animal disease models is also reviewed. The chapter concludes that hES cells show great promise for regenerative medicine although significant developments are still required to exploit their potential for cell and gene therapy.     

孤雌胚胎干细胞在细胞疗法中的优势与局限性

孤雌胚胎干细胞(p ESCs)是建立患者特异性多能干细胞的有效途径,因具有类似胚胎干细胞(ESCs)自我复制和多潜能特性,成为再生医学的"种子细胞"。杂合型p ESCs有望用于自体移植,纯合型p ESCs理论上可用于异体基因疗法,却因自然杀伤(NK)细胞识别而产生免疫排斥反应。本文旨在综述孤雌生殖的表观遗传特性,总结p ESCs在细胞疗法中的优势和局限性,阐述克服免疫排斥反应的新策略。     

OCT4在妇产科中的研究进展

八聚体结合因子4(OCT4)是秀丽隐杆线虫神经(POU)转录因子家族的一员,主要表达于胚胎干细胞、生殖细胞、胚胎性癌细胞和肿瘤干细胞中,被公认为是干细胞的标记物,在维持干细胞的多能性、自我更新能力及在肿瘤的恶性行为学中起着举足轻重的作用。同时OCT4也参与胚胎发育过程中多向性分化调节。近年来随着干细胞理论及其相关研究的发展,OCT4作为干细胞的标记物也被用于不同领域的研究中,综述其在妇产科领域的研究进展。     

An artificial sperm – next year or never?

The idea that a sperm or egg might be formed outside of a gonad is perhaps as bizarre today as human assisted conception and test-tube babies were 30–40 years ago and has received a similar amount of media copy. Here, we review briefly the derivation of mammalian germ cells and sperm cells from embryonic stem cells in?vitro, ask whether these methods are viable and could provide therapies in the future, and discuss what constitutes an ‘artificial’ sperm.