Expansion of Functional Human Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells in Serum Free Medium

Due to their easy and safe accessibility, abundant cell numbers, and lack of ethical concerns, amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSCs) have emerging as an important cell source for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.However, little is done about serum free medium for the expansion and differentiation of hAFSCs for clinical applications. In this study, the proliferation of hAFSCs cultured in different serum free media and serum contained complete medium for 3 passageswas investigated. For each passage, cell number, cell viability and cell morphology were studied and compared. In the end of the third passage, cells were harvested and characteristic surface markers were measured by flow cytometry analysis. Additionally, osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of expanded cells were carried out. Our results indicated that one serum free medium can extensively expand hAFSCs, and the produced hAFSCs maintained their immunophenotypic profile and multilineage differentiation capacity. Therefore, this serum free medium could be a very promising medium to culture hAFSCs for clinical applications.