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Review
. 2018 Jul 11;9(1):189.
doi: 10.1186/s13287-018-0932-z.

Urine-derived cells for human cell therapy

Nimshitha Pavathuparambil Abdul Manaph  1   2   3 , Mohammed Al-Hawwas  2 , Larisa Bobrovskaya  2 , Patrick T Coates  1   3 , Xin-Fu Zhou  4
Affiliations
Review

Urine-derived cells for human cell therapy

Nimshitha Pavathuparambil Abdul Manaph et al. Stem Cell Res Ther. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Desirable cells for human cell therapy would be ones that can be generated by simple isolation and culture techniques using a donor sample obtained by non-invasive methods. To date, the different donor-specific cells that can be isolated from blood, skin, and hair require invasive methods for sample isolation and incorporate complex and costly reagents to culture. These cells also take considerable time for their in-vitro isolation and expansion. Previous studies suggest that donor-derived cells, namely urine stem cells and renal cells, may be isolated from human urine samples using a cost-effective and simple method of isolation, incorporating not such complex reagents. Moreover, the isolated cells, particularly urine stem cells, are superior to conventional stem cell sources in terms of favourable gene profile and inherent multipotent potential. Transdifferentiation or differentiation of human urine-derived cells can generate desirable cells for regenerative therapy. In this review, we intended to discuss the characteristics and therapeutic applications of urine-derived cells for human cell therapy. Conclusively, with detailed study and optimisation, urine-derived cells have a prospective future to generate functional lineage-specific cells for patients from a clinical translation point of view.

Keywords: Differentiation; Renal cells; Stem cells; Therapy; Urine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Human urine collection and storage was performed in accordance with the Ethics committee of University of South Australia (human ethic number 0000035945).

Consent for publication

All authors have approved the data for the submission.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
In-vitro characteristics of the urine-derived cells. a Growth curve analysis of renal cells (RC) and urine stem cells (USC) from different donors. Analysis reveals that USC have better expandability than renal cells. Renal cells demonstrated less expandability by passage 5. RC M60, M43, F38, and M37 indicate cells cultured from donors of the following ages (years)/gender: 60 (male), 43 (male), 38 (female), and 37 (male), respectively. C1 and C2 indicates the cell line number. USC M22, M28, F29, and M63 indicate urine stem cells cultured from donors of the following ages (years)/gender: 22 (male), 28 (male), 29 (female), and 60 (male), respectively. b Life-span of urine stem cells. Irrespective of the cells being from different donors, the isolated urine stem cells have been shown to generate viable cells up to 40–45 days
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sox-17 expression in renal cells. a RC F38, b RC M37, and c RC M43 indicate renal cells cultured from donors of the following ages (years)/genders: 38 (female), 37 (male), and 38 (male), respectively. The blue colour indicates nuclear staining of individual cells for all Sox-17 staining for respective donors. Depending on the quality of samples, the cells were positive for the endoderm marker Sox-17 (red colour) at varying levels. For the phase-contrast images, pictures were taken at 4× magnification and scale bar = 1000 μm. For fluorescent images, pictures were taken at 40× magnification and scale bar = 50 μm
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Future applications of urine cells in therapy. Donor-specific urine cells can be directly differentiated into organ-specific cells to transplant immediately or can be stored in cell banks for future revival, differentiation, and transplantation. ipsc induced pluripotent stem cells
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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