Supplementation of Growth Differentiation Factor-5 Increases Proliferation and Size of Chondrogenic Pellets of Human Umbilical Cord-Derived Perivascular Stem Cells

In recent years, perivascular stem cells (PVCs) have gained increasing attention as a promising source for regenerative medicine due to their greater differentiation potential compared to multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). It has been reported that growth differentiation factor-5 (GDF-5) is involved in regulating proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs. In this study, we investigated the effect of GDF-5 on the proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of PVCs isolated from human umbilical cords. The supplementation of PVC cultures with GDF-5 (100 ng/mL) significantly enhanced their proliferative rate and augmented the size of pellets in micromass pellet cultures for chondrogenic induction. Although similar expression levels of chondrogenic-related genes were observed in chondrogenic pellets treated with GDF-5 compared to the pellets without GDF-5 treatment, these results indicate that supplementation of GDF-5 is able to acquire more chondrocytes when starting with equal amount of PVCs. Our study suggests that GDF-5 is an effective agent for the enhancement of PVC proliferation, thereby achieving a higher number of chondrocytes that are applicable in therapeutic doses for cartilage regeneration.