Induced differentiation and molecular characterization of monocytes-derived multipotential cells generated from commonly discarded leukapheresis filters

Monocyte-derived multipotential cells (MOMCs) are a subpopulation of monocytes that appear to be capable of differentiating into many cell populations, thus MOMCs can be an ideal autologous transplantable cell source for regenerative medicine. In this study, we generated MOMCs from leukapheresis filters, evaluated their ability to differentiate to endothelium and osteocytes and performed their molecular characterization. For this purpose, leukapheresis filters were collected from a hospital blood donation department and used for leukocytes isolation. The isolated leukocytes were cultured in a medium supplemented with SDF-1a for MOMCs generation. We evaluated the expression of the multipotency genes ZNF217, ZNF878, ESRRB, SALL4, KLF4, SOX2, NANOG, OCT4, GAPDH, CD34 and c-MYC in MOMCs with real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and the dif-ferentiation capacity of MOMCs to osteocytes and endothelium with qRT-PCR. The results suggest that MOMCs can be generated using leukocytes isolated from leukapheresis filters in the presence of SDF-1a. Furthermore, MOMCs expressed all the tested factors responsible to activate the networks of pluripotency of cells and can differentiate into endothelium and osteocytes. Therefore, the blood donors could benefit and be rewarded with the potential use of their own immune system cells for future treatment in the frame of personalized regenerative medicine.