Objective: Adipose tissue and Wharton Jelly (WJ) are two important sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) used in preclinical and clinical studies. Stem cells, which have great potential in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in the future, can be produced in cell cultures in two dimensions. It is aimed to investigate the cell surface antigens showing pluripotency of the embryonic period in MSCs with micro-carrier 3D culture systems used in the production of large-scale MSCs.

Materials and methods: In this study, two different MSC groups of WJ and adipose tissue origin were used. MSC groups were cultured with Hillex-II and Pronectin-F microcarriers. It was aimed to investigate the expression of TRA1-60, Sox-2, Nanog, Oct-4, SSEA-4 cell antigens by flow cytometry.

Results: Especially SSEA4 marker was found to be highly positive in WJ-derived MSCs while their expression was observed at lower levels in MSCs originating from adipose tissue. The higher cell surface marker in culture with hillex-II microcarrier in adipose tissue derived-MSCs was similarly found with a higher rate in the WJ derived-MSC group.

Conclusion: It was observed that embryonic stem cell antigens were expressed at different rates in two different cell groups. It was observed that SSEA4 surface antigen was expressed more in WJ-derived MSCs.