Adipose Stem Cell Translational Applications: From Bench-to-Bedside

Abstract

During the last five years, there has been a significantly increasing interest in adult adipose stem cells (ASCs) as a suitable tool for translational medicine applications. The abundant and renewable source of ASCs and the relatively simple procedure for cell isolation are only some of the reasons for this success. Here, we document the advances in the biology and in the innovative biotechnological applications of ASCs. We discuss how the multipotential property boosts ASCs toward mesenchymal and non-mesenchymal differentiation cell lineages and how their character is maintained even if they are combined with gene delivery systems and/or biomaterials, both in vitro and in vivo.

Keywords: biomaterials; gene/cell therapy; regenerative medicine; tissue engineering.

Figure 1

Paradigm of stem cells. (a) Asymmetric and symmetric division of stem cells give rise committed cells that generate lineage specific progenitors. The latter generate differentiated cells. (b) The cartoon shows the origin of the different stem cell types during the developmental stages.

Figure 2

The figure shows the main steps for generating ASCs from lipoaspirate or subcutaneous adipose tissue (see the text for details).

Figure 3

Regenerative medicine paradigm. The cartoon schematizes the three current strategies of regenerative medicine: (1) Transplantation. Autologous ASCs are expanded in vitro and are implanted in the host recipient tissues directly (see Section 3.1). (2) Gene/Cell therapy. Autologous ASCs are expanded in vitro and are transduced with viral-vector carrying the therapeutic gene and then are implanted in the host recipient tissues (see Section 3.2). (3) Tissue Engineering. Autologous ASCs are expanded in vitro and are combined with biomaterials, then are implanted in the recipient host to regenerate damaged tissues (see Section 3.3).