Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Role of Keratinocyte Growth Factor in the Differentiation of Sweat Gland-Like Cells From Human Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Humanumbilical cord-derivedmesenchymal stemcells (hUC-MSCs) havehigherproliferationpotency and lower immune resistance thanhumanbonemarrowMSCsand candifferentiate into various functional cells. Many regulatory factors, including keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), are involved in the development of skin and cutaneous appendages. Although KGF is important in wound healing, the role of KGF in hUC-MSC differentiation remains unknown. In our previous work, we found themixing medium (nine parts of basic sweat-gland [SG] medium plus one part of conditioned heat-shock SG medium) could induce hUC-MSC differentiation to sweat gland-like cells (SGCs). In this study, we further improved the inducing medium and determined the effects of KGF in hUC-MSC differentiation. We found KGF expression in the SGCs and that recombinant human KGF could induce hUC-MSC differentiation into SGCs, suggesting KGF plays a pivotal role in promoting hUC-MSC differentiation to SGCs. Furthermore, the SGCs differentiated from hUC-MSCs were applied to severely burned skin of the paw of an in vivo severe combined immunodeficiency mouse burn model. Burned paws treated with SGCs could regenerate functional sparseSGs21days after treatment; theuntreated control paws could not. Collectively, these results demonstrated that KGF is a critical growth factor for SGC differentiation fromhUC-MSCsand thedifferentiated SGCs fromhUC-MSCsmayhave apotential therapeutic application for regeneration of destroyed SGs and injured skin. STEM CELLS TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE 2016;5:1–11