Biofabrication of a Tubular Model of Human Urothelial Mucosa Using Human Wharton Jelly Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Garzón Bello, Ingrid Johanna Jaimes Parra, Boris Damián Cózar Olmo, José Manuel Sánchez Quevedo, María Del Carmen Sánchez-Montesinos García, Indalecio Fernández Valadés, Ricardo Campos Sánchez, Fernando Alaminos Mingorance, Miguel Urothelial mucosa Human Wharton jelly mesenchymal stromal cells Biofabrication Several models of bioartificial human urothelial mucosa (UM) have been described recently. In this study, we generated novel tubularized UM substitutes using alternative sources of cells. Nanostructured fibrin–agarose biomaterials containing fibroblasts isolated from the human ureter were used as stroma substitutes. Then, human Wharton jelly mesenchymal stromal cells (HWJSC) were used to generate an epithelial-like layer on top. Three differentiation media were used for 7 and 14 days. Results showed that the biofabrication methods used here succeeded in generating a tubular structure consisting of a stromal substitute with a stratified epithelial-like layer on top, especially using a medium containing epithelial growth and differentiation factors (EM), although differentiation was not complete. At the functional level, UM substitutes were able to synthesize collagen fibers, proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans, although the levels of control UM were not reached ex vivo. Epithelial differentiation was partially achieved, especially with EM after 14 days of development, with expression of keratins 7, 8, and 13 and pancytokeratin, desmoplakin, tightjunction protein-1, and uroplakin 2, although at lower levels than controls. These results confirm the partial urothelial differentiative potential of HWJSC and suggest that the biofabrication methods explored here were able to generate a potential substitute of the human UM for future clinical use. 2021-05-14T09:00:16Z 2021-05-14T09:00:16Z 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Garzón, I.; Jaimes-Parra, B.D.; Pascual-Geler, M.; Cózar, J.M.; Sánchez-Quevedo, M.d.C.; Mosquera-Pacheco, M.A.; Sánchez-Montesinos, I.; Fernández-Valadés, R.; Campos, F.; Alaminos, M. Biofabrication of a Tubular Model of Human Urothelial Mucosa Using Human Wharton Jelly Mesenchymal Stromal Cells. Polymers 2021, 13, 1568. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/polym13101568 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/68520 10.3390/polym13101568 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI