Isolation and Characterization of a Human Fetal Mesenchymal Stem Cell Population: Exploring the Potential for Cell Banking in Wound Healing Therapies

Various cell-based therapies are in development to address chronic and acute skin wound healing, for example for burns and trauma patients. An off-the-shelf source of allogeneic dermal cells could be beneficial for innovative therapies accelerating the healing in extensive wounds where the availability of a patient’s own cells is limited. Human fetal-derived dermal fibroblasts (hFDFs) show high in vitro division rates, exhibit low immunological rejection properties, and present scarless wound healing in the fetus, and previous studies on human fetal tissue-derived cell therapies have shown promising results on tissue repair. However, little is known about cell lineage stability and cell differentiation during the cell expansion process, required for any potential therapeutic use. We describe an isolation method, characterize a population, and investigate its potential for cell banking and thus suitability as a potential product for cell grafting therapies. Our results show hFDFs and a bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (BM-MSC) line shared identification markers and in vitro multilineage differentiation potential into osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic lineages. The hFDF population exhibited similar cell characteristics as BM-MSCs while producing lower pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 levels and higher levels of the wound healing factor hepatocyte growth factor. We demonstrate in vitro differentiation of hFDFs, which may be a problem in maintaining long-term lineage stability, potentially limiting their use for cell banking and therapy development.