Umbilical Cord as Prospective Source for Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Therapy

Table 3

The genes expressed at higher levels in UC-MSCs compared to MSCs derived from adipose tissue, bone marrow, and skin (according to [12]).

Genes	Functions	⁢Expression levels in UC-MSCs compared to
		BM-MSC	AT-MSC	Skin-MSC
HAND1; Heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 1	Plays a critical role in heart development	Higher	Higher	Higher
AFP; Alpha-fetoprotein	The major plasma protein produced in the liver during fetal life	Higher	Higher	Higher
DKK1; Dickkopf homolog 1	An inhibitor of the WNT-signaling pathway critical for endodermal development	Higher	ns	Higher
DSG2; Desmoglein 2	An important component of desmosomes in epithelial cell type	Higher	ns	Higher
KRT8,19; Keratin 8, 19	The major intermediate filament proteins of epithelial cells	Higher	Higher	Higher
KRT18; Keratin 18	The major intermediate filament proteins of epithelial cells	Higher	ns	Higher

Significantly increased mRNA expression between mutually compared stem cell types (fold change > 2; value < 0.05). ns: not significant.