male germ-like cell differentiation potential of human umbilical cord wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells in co-culture with human placenta cells in presence of bmp4 and retinoic acid

objective(s):mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) derived from wharton’s jelly (wj-mscs) are now much more appealing for cell-based infertility therapy. hence, wj-mscs differentiation toward germ layer cells for cell therapy purposes is currently under intensive study. materials and methods: mscs were isolated from human wharton’s jelly and treated with bmp4, retinoic acid (ra) or co-cultured on human amniotic epithelial (hae) and chorionic plate (hcp) placenta feeder cells. profile of pou5f1, fragilis, plzf, ddx4, piwil2, stra8, dazl, β1- and α6-integrins (itβ1, ita6) genes expression as germ cell markers were analyzed using rt-pcr and real-time pcr. immunocytochemistry of surface markers were conducted. results: after 3 weeks treatment with different reagents and co-culture system, morphology of wj-mscs  changed to shiny clusters and germ cell specific markers in mrna were up-regulated in both placental feeder + ra and bmp4 + ra. induction of hwj-mscs with bmp4 in presence of ra resulted in significant up-regulation (p≤0.05) of all germ cell specific genes (c-kit; 2.84±0.59, ddx4; 1.69±0.39, piwil2; 1.14±0.21, dazl; 0.65±0.25, α6 integrin; 1.26±0.53, β1 integrins; 1.18±0.65) compared to control and placental feeder cells + ra. our results indicated that hae and hcp followed by ra treatment were involved in human germ cell development. conclusion: we demonstrated that under the right conditions, hwj-mscs have the ability to differentiate to germ cells and this provides an excellent pattern to study infertility cause and treatment.