RESUMEN
Umbilical cord blood transplantation was first reported in 1980. Since then, additional research has indicated that umbilical cord blood stem cells (UCBSCs) have various advantages, such as multilineage differentiation potential and potent renewal activity, which may be induced to promote their differentiation into a variety of seed cells for tissue engineering and the treatment of clinical and metabolic diseases. Recent studies suggested that UCBSCs are able to differentiate into nerve cells, chondrocytes, hepatocytelike cells, fat cells and osteoblasts. The culture of UCBSCs has developed from feederlayer to feederfree culture systems. The classical techniques of cell labeling and tracing by gene transfection and fluorescent dye and nucleic acid analogs have evolved to DNA barcode technology mediated by transposon/retrovirus, cyclization recombinationrecombinase and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPRassociated protein 9 strategies. DNA barcoding for cell development tracing has advanced to include single cells and single nucleic acid mutations. In the present study, the latest research findings on the development and differentiation, culture techniques and labeling and tracing of UCBSCs are reviewed. The present study may increase the current understanding of UCBSC biology and its clinical applications.