Table 1.

A summary of the advantages and disadvantages of hUMSCs

Advantages	Disadvantages
1. Easily obtained from umbilical cords without invasive procedures involved	Low survival rates after transplantation
2. No risk of viral contamination compared to BMSC
3. Limited ethical issues involved in comparison to ESCs
4. Higher rates of harvest compared to cord blood MSCs	Reduced in vivo differentiation potential
5. Can be maintained in culture for longer periods compared to BMSCs
6. May exhibit clinically low immunogenicity potential	May fail to home at the site of injury after implantation
7. Low tumorigenicity potential as compared to ESCs
8. Primitive population and express low levels of pluripotent genes such as oct4 and sox2