3.4. Umbilical cord blood

As umbilical cord blood contains MSCs, it could serve as an alternative source of MSCs to bone marrow. A novel method to obtain single cell-derived and clonally expanded MSCs that have multilineage differentiation potential, is negative immunoselection and limiting dilution. The immunophenotype of these clonally expanded cells is similar with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. These cells can differentiate into bone, cartilage, and fat under suitable induction conditions. These cells were also able to differentiate into neuroglial- and hepatocyte-like cells; therefore, these cells may be more than mesenchymal stem cells due to their ability to differentiate into cell types of all 3 germ layers [7].
