NEURAL-LIKE DIFFERENTIATION OF ADIPOSE STEM CELLS

Various strategies can be adopted to induce a neural-like differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs). This is of great interest to develop therapeutic strategies for the treatment of a number of human pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases. Other than adding inductive chemical molecules to the culture medium, good results can be obtained by using a conditioned medium (CM) from other cells such as neural cells. In previous investigations, a neural-like ASC differentiation was achieved using CM from Schwann cells or Olfactory Ensheathing Cells (OECs), to mimic as close as possible a physiological neural microenvironment. In this work, a CM from Neural Progenitor Cells (NPCs) was tested and compared to results obtained by using an OEC-CM or a neural basal medium (NBM), specifically designed for NPCs. To this purpose, the fluorescent immunocytochemical expression of typical neural markers (β3-Tubulin, Synapsin and Neuron-specific enolase) was detected after 1 and 7 days of treatment. A sample of native ASCs cultured in the basal growth medium served as control. Results obtained confirmed that, compared to controls, a neural-like ASC differentiation could be induced by using OEC-CM. Similar outcomes were observed when ASCs were exposed to the neural basal medium. A much more increased expression of neural markers was observed by growing ASCs in NPC-CM. Moreover, also cell morphology changed during the differentiation processes, since bigger cell bodies were observed, featuring cytoplasmic elongations. Overall, these protocols represent further strategies to induce a neural-like ASC differentiation, aimed at developing ASC-based therapeutical approaches.