title: Cellular mechanical properties reflect the differentiation potential of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells.
abstract: The mechanical properties of adipose-derived stem cell (ASC) clones correlate with their ability to produce tissue-specific metabolites, a finding that has dramatic implications for cell-based regenerative therapies. Autologous ASCs are an attractive cell source due to their immunogenicity and multipotent characteristics. However, for practical applications ASCs must first be purified from other cell types, a critical step which has proven difficult using surface-marker approaches. Alternative enrichment strategies identifying broad categories of tissue-specific cells are necessary for translational applications. One possibility developed in our lab uses single-cell mechanical properties as predictive biomarkers of ASC clonal differentiation capability. Elastic and viscoelastic properties of undifferentiated ASCs were tested via atomic force microscopy and correlated with lineage-specific metabolite production. Cell sorting simulations based on these "mechanical biomarkers" indicated they were predictive of differentiation capability and could be used to enrich for tissue-specific cells, which if implemented could dramatically improve the quality of regenerated tissues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
authors.forename: Rafael D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: González-Cruz
authors.forename: Vera C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Darling
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000166:cytology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D006801:Humans; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force