Yoko Kawase-Koga
   Department   School of Medicine(Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital), School of Medicine
   Position   Professor and Division head
Article types Original article
Language English
Peer review Peer reviewed
Title Characterization of multipotent adult stem cells from the skin: transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) facilitates cell growth.
Journal Formal name:Experimental cell research
Abbreviation:Exp Cell Res
ISSN code:00144827/00144827
Domestic / ForeginForegin
Volume, Issue, Page 295(1),pp.194-203
Author and coauthor Kawase Yoko, Yanagi Yasuo, Takato Tsuyoshi, Fujimoto Manabu, Okochi Hitoshi
Publication date 2004/04
Summary Recently, adult stem cells have been isolated from the skin and designated as skin-derived precursors (SKPs). These SKPs, cultured in vitro, can give rise to neurons, glia, smooth muscle cells, and adipocytes. In the current study, we confirmed the clonal expansion of SKPs using a sphere-forming culture system in a medium containing methylcellulose. Among the growth factors, only transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) was revealed to uniquely facilitate the sphere formation and proliferation of the SKPs in combination with EGF and bFGF. In addition, TGF-beta did not alter phenotypical characteristics of the SKPs under sphere-forming conditions. The effect of TGF-beta on sphere formation was not observed in neural stem cells, which expressed a different set of cell surface markers from SKPs, suggesting that SKPs have distinct features. Although the number of SKPs decreased with age, TGF-beta increased the sphere colony formation and proliferation in all ages. These results suggest that SKPs maintained in the presence of TGF-beta during culture are of potential use in cell-replacement therapies employing adult tissue sources.
DOI 10.1016/j.yexcr.2003.12.027
PMID 15051502