中国生物工程杂志

Amniotic epithelial cells (hAECs) and amniotic mesenchymal cells (hAMCs) derived from humam amniotic mambrane express stem cell markers and have the ability to differentiate toward all three germ layers. Therefore, human amniotic membrane cells draw great interest as a source of for regenerative medicine. Recent reports indicate that hAECs or hAMCs possess the potential of multilineage differentiation, and can differentiate into "neuron-like" cells, "hepatocyte-like" cells, "cardiomyocyte-like" cells, pancreatic beta-cells, osteoblasts, chondrocytes and so on in vitro condition. The therapy-based expremental studies show that hAECs and hAMCs have the protective effects on neurological disorders, liver disease, myocardial infarction and diabetes mellitus. Recent advances in phenotypic characteristic and phenotypic plasticity of human amnion-derived cells were reviewed.