Abstract
Adipose tissue-derived stromal cells, termed ASCs, play an important role in regenerative applications. They resemble mesenchymal stem cells owing to their inexhaustibility, general differentiation potential, and plasticity and display a series of cell-specific and cluster-of-differentiation (CD) marker profiles similar to those of other somatic stem cells. Variations in phenotypes or differentiation are intimately associated with CD markers. The purpose of our study was to exhibit distinct populations of ASCs with differing characteristics for osteogenic differentiation. The primary cell batch of murine-derived ASCs was extracted from subcutaneous adipose tissue and the cells were sorted for the expression of the surface protein molecules CD90 and CD105 using flow cytometry. Each cell population sorted for CD90 and CD105 was analyzed for osteogenic potency after cell culture. The results suggested that ASCs exhibit distinct populations with differing characteristics for osteogenic differentiation: unsorted ASCs stimulated comparable mineralized nodule formation as bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in osteogenic medium and viral transfection for BMP2 accelerated the formation of mineralized nodules in CD90 and/or CD105 positive ASCs with observation of decrease in CD105 expression after 14 days. Future studies assessing different immunophenotypes of ASCs should be undertaken to develop cell-based tissue engineering.