Effect of Vitamin C on Bioviability and Differentiation Potential of Human Umbilical Cord Wharton's Jelly-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells are one of the valuable sources for cell therapy and tissue engineering, and for these purposes, it is necessary to proliferate them in culture medium. Culture medium imposes oxidative stress on cells. Vitamin C (vit C) is a potent antioxidant. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of vit C on proliferation and differentiation of these cells.
After isolation and culture of cells from umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly, cells of third passage culture, were treated with different concentrations of vit C in five groups, including: 1- without vit C, 2- supplemented medium with 5µM of vit C; 3- supplemented medium with 50µM of vit C; 4- supplemented medium with 250, and 5- supplemented medium with 500µM of vit C. The treatment period was 9days. Cellular bioviability was assessed by MTT assay, and their differentiation potential was assessed by osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation inducer medium and histochemical staining.
In this study, vit C with concentration of 250µM increased cellular bioviability, while other concentrations decreased it (p≤0.05). Also, 50µM concentration improved osteogenic differentiation; while, in terms of adipogenic differentiation, it could just uniform dispersion of lipid droplets with 50 µM concentration.
The results of this study showed that an appropriate concentration of vit C can increase the viability of Wharton’s jelly and affect osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation in a dose-dependent manner.