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Background: Dysfunction of blood vessel leads to aneurysms, myocardial infarction and other thrombosis conditions. Current treatment strategies are transplantation of blood vessels from one part of the body to other dysfunction area, or allogenic, synthetic. Due to shortage of the donor, painful dissection, and lack of efficacy in synthetic, there is a need for alternative to native blood vessels for transplantation. Methods: Human umbilical-cord tissue obtained from the hospital with the informed consent. Umbilical-cord blood vessels were isolated for decellularization and to establish endothelial cell culture. Cultured cells were characterized by immunophenotype, gene expression and in vitro angiogenesis assay. Decellularized blood vessels were recellularized with the endothelial progenitors and Wharton jelly, CL MSCs (1:1), which was characterized by MTT, biomechanical testing, DNA content, SEM and histologically. Bioengineered vessels were transplanted into the animal models to evaluate their effect. Results: Cultured cells express CD31 and CD14 determining endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). EPCs expresses various factors such as angiopoitin1, VWF, RANTES, VEGF, BDNF, FGF1, FGF2, HGF, IGF, GDNF, NGF, PLGF, NT3, but fail to express NT4, EGF, and CNTF. Pro and anti-inflammatory cytokine expressions were noticed. Functionally, these EPCs elicit in vitro tube formation. Negligible DNA content and intact ECM confirms the efficient decellularization of tissue. The increased MTT activity in recellularized tissue determines proliferating cells and biocompatibility of the scaffolds. Moreover, significant (P

Recent studies have revealed that the therapeutic effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is due to their secretome. Secretome is considered to be advantageous over cells, because of less chances of teratoma formation and no cell genome variability of donor and recipient. The current study aimed to screen the secretome of cord lining (CL) and Wharton jelly (WJ) of human umbilical cord stem cells and their functionality. Explants culture of human CL and WJ were characterized for classical MSC markers, pluripotency for germ layer expression then studied for their neurosphere and neurogenesis ability. These stem cells were screened for the expression of trophic factors (BDNF/GDNF/CNTF/NT3/NT4/NGF/FGF1/FGF2/VEGF/HGF/IGF/EGF/PlGF/IFN gamma/TNF-α/IL-1b/IL-4/IL-10/IFN-α1/TGF-β). Cells were cultured under serum-free conditions for 48 h and the conditioned media (CM) were collected. Functional effect of CM was analyzed on SHSY5Y, U87MG, and endothelial cells for proliferation/differentiation/anti-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic effects respectively. CL and WJ cells showed positive for MSC markers and negative for hematopoietic lineage. Both stem cells exhibited highly proliferative phenotype with normal karyotype even after several passages. All the major growth factors were expressed at varying levels expect CNTF. Cells illustrated the expression of various inflammatory modulators except IL-10 and elucidated anti-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic effect. These cells formed neurosphere in vitro and upon neuronal induction, expressed mature neuronal markers. CM enhanced SHSY5Y cell proliferation and differentiation. Easily accessible human umbilical cord stem’s secretome can have potential therapeutic effect in neurodegenerative disease. Cellular secretions from human umbilical cord stem cells have the potential property to exert neuroprotective effect. Hence, instead of using cells as the therapeutics, the cellular secretions can be potentially used to achieve clinical healing/repair of degenerative tissues of our nervous system.