We investigated the effects of donor age and passage number on the biological characteristics of menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs) by comparing MenSCs derived from donors with three different age ranges and after different passage times. Continuous passage, flat cloning, cell proliferation assays, flow cytometric phenotyping and whole human genome microarray were performed to systematically analyze the relationship between the self-renewal ability of MenSCs as well as their potential to maintain their stem cell characteristics and to resist aging. The results demonstrated that the immunophenotypes and in vitro cultural characteristics of MenSCs did not change significantly with the progression of aging. However, some important signal pathways including MAPK, the insulin signaling pathway, pathways involved in carcinogenesis such as PPAR and P53, and cytokines and their receptors, as well as other pathways associated with immune response and aging, changed to various extents under the conditions of aging after a long time in vitro. The enriched differentially-expressed genes were mainly involved in transcriptional regulation, stress response, cell proliferation, development and apoptosis. The key differentially-expressed genes associated with age and passage number were identified for use as biomarkers of cell aging.
Keywords: Menstrual blood-derived stem cells; gene expression.