The gelatinous connective tissue inside the umbilical cord — and the specific source most cord-derived MSC products are referring to.
Wharton's jelly is the mucous connective tissue that fills the space within the umbilical cord, surrounding and protecting the umbilical arteries and vein. It's named for Thomas Wharton, the 17th-century anatomist who first described it. Structurally, it's a hydrated extracellular matrix composed largely of hyaluronic acid, collagen, and proteoglycans — a gel-like scaffold rather than a cellular tissue in the conventional sense, though it houses the mesenchymal stromal cells most cord-tissue products are derived from.
Wharton's jelly is frequently confused with cord blood, but they're distinct tissues with different cell content:
A product described as "umbilical cord-derived" should specify which tissue component it's sourced from, since the two contain functionally different cell populations.
Wharton's jelly-derived MSCs are collected from donor tissue at birth — avoiding the age-related decline in proliferation capacity seen in adult tissue sources — and the collection process is non-invasive to the donor, since the tissue is recovered after a healthy birth from tissue that would otherwise be discarded. See Umbilical Cord vs. Bone Marrow Stem Cells for a fuller comparison against other sources.
This page is educational reference material for licensed healthcare providers and does not constitute medical, legal, or regulatory advice. HCT/P products are not FDA-approved.