Research Article

Standardizing Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for Translation to Clinical Use: Selection of GMP-Compliant Medium and a Simplified Isolation Method

Figure 4

Differentiation and colony forming unit fibroblast (CFU-F) results for the characterization of UC-MSCs. (a) After adipogenic differentiation, MSCs were stained with Oil Red which binds to lipid droplets (20x objective magnification; scale bar = 200 micrometers). (b) After osteogenic differentiation, MSCs were stained with Alizarin Red S which binds to calcium deposits. (c) After chondrogenic differentiation, MSCs stained with Safranin O which binds to glycosaminoglycans in cartilage ((b) and (c) at 10x objective magnification; scale bar = 400 micrometers). (d) UC-MSCs in normal growth conditions (control) phase contrast micrograph at 4x objective magnification. (e) CFU-F efficiency was calculated by dividing the number of plated cells by the number of CFU-F colonies observed. Panel (e) shows colony forming efficiency versus human pooled platelet lysate (HPL) concentration in medium (2, 5, or 10% HPL) after plating at 5 (black bars) or 10 (gray bars) cells per cm2 and 4 days in culture.
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