Comparative Phenotypic Characterization of Human Colostrum and Breast Milk-Derived Stem Cells Publisher Pubmed



Goudarzi N^{1, 2} ; Shabani R^{1, 2} ; Ebrahimi M³ ; Baghestani A⁵ ; Dehdashtian E⁵ ; Vahabzadeh G⁴ ; Soleimani M^{1, 2} ; Moradi F^{1, 2} ; Katebi M⁶ Show Affiliations
Source: Human Cell Published:2020

Abstract

There is a diverse population of stem cells in human breast milk that can be employed for therapeutic purposes as a reservoir of cells. The current study mainly aimed to determine the nature markers expressing on stem cells. For this aim, the expression of embryonic stem cell markers, as well as the expression of endothelial, mesenchymal, neural, and hematopoietic markers were evaluated by the flow cytometry analysis in fresh colostrum, breast milk, and cultured colostrum samples. The results showed that the embryonic (OCT4, SOX2, HLA-DR), hematopoietic (CD33, CD45, CD117), neural (CD133, Nestin), and mesenchymal (CD44, SCA1) stem cell markers present in colostrum had higher expression in comparison with their counterpart markers in fresh breast milk. The expression markers of stem cells in colostrum following a 2-week culture period were significantly increased compared with their counterpart markers in colostrum before the culture process. In the culture of breastmilk, cells were not observed adherent cells and colonies. Our findings form flow cytometry and cell culture suggest that the lactation stage could be one of the factors influencing the stem cell population and, consequently, the cultivation of breastmilk cells. The present study indicates that colostrum is a tremendous source of stem cells that could be applied in cell-based research. © 2020, Japan Human Cell Society and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature.