Evaluation of Human Skin-Derived Stem Cell Characteristics After Non-Invasive Quantum Dot Labeling.

Background/aims: The use of skin-derived stem cells and stem cells of other origins in regenerative medicine requires knowledge of stem cell fate after transplantation. In order to achieve non-invasive long-term imaging and tracking of transplanted stem cells in preclinical studies, a non-toxic, efficient labeling technique that does not alter stem cell characteristics must be used. Our aim was to investigate a method for such a long-term cell-compatible cell tracer using nanoparticles.

Nestin progenitor cells isolated from adult human sweat gland stroma promote reepithelialisation and may stimulate angiogenesis in wounded human skin ex vivo.

The combination of an aging population and an increasing prevalence of diseases associated with impaired-wound healing, including obesity, peripheral vascular disease and diabetes, is likely to result in a dramatic increase in the incidence and prevalence of chronic skin wounds. Indeed, systemic reviews are now not only trying to establish both the prevalence and the often under-estimated socio-economic costs of chronic skin wounds, but most importantly are addressing the impact that chronic wounds have on quality of life. Given the clear need for novel approaches to the management of chronic skin ulceration, ideally developed and tested in the human system in a manner that can be rapidly translated into clinical practice, we examined the effects of multipotent primary human nestin progenitor cells on human wound healing in an ex vivo model.

Multipotent nestin-positive stem cells reside in the stroma of human eccrine and apocrine sweat glands and can be propagated robustly in vitro.

Human skin harbours multiple different stem cell populations. In contrast to the relatively well-characterized niches of epidermal and hair follicle stem cells, the localization and niches of stem cells in other human skin compartments are as yet insufficiently investigated. Previously, we had shown in a pilot study that human sweat gland stroma contains Nestin-positive stem cells.