Descrição
It has been recently reported that mesenchymal progenitor/stem cells isolated from the Wharton’s Jelly (WJ) of umbilical
cords (UC) ameliorate the condition of animals suffering from central nervous system (CNS)-related conditions.
However, little is known on the mechanisms that regulate these actions. Therefore, the objective of the present
work was to determine how the conditioned media (CM) of a population of mesenchymal progenitors present in
the UC WJ, known as human umbilical cord perivascular cells (HUCPVCs), regulate processes such as cell viability,
survival, and proliferation of postnatal hippocampal neurons and glial cells. For this purpose primary hippocampal
and cortical cultures of neurons and glial cells, respectively, were incubated with CM from HUCPVCs. Results
revealed that HUCPVCs CM increase glial cell viability and proliferation. Furthermore, it was observed that glial
cell cultures exhibited higher numbers of GFAP-positive cells (astrocytes) and O4-positive cells (oligodendrocytes)
when incubated with the CM. Additionally, it was also observed that the growth factors presents in the CM did not
induce an increase on the microglial cells number. For hippocampal neurons similar results were obtained, as cultures
exposed to HUCPVCs CM disclosed higher numbers of MAP-2–positive cells. Moreover it was also observed
that the cell viability and proliferation in this primary hippocampal cell culture system was also higher, when compared
to control cultures. From these results it was possible to conclude that HUCPVCs release neuroregulatory
factors that have a direct impact on the densities, viability, and proliferation of glial cells and hippocampal primary
cultures.
; Fraga, J. S. 
