title: Alkaline phosphatase expression/activity and multilineage differentiation potential are the differences between fibroblasts and orbital fat-derived stem cells--a study in animal serum-free culture conditions.
abstract: Human orbital fat tissues are a potential source to isolate stem cells for the development of regenerative medicine therapies. For future safe clinical application of these cells, it is critical to establish animal component-free culture conditions as well as to clearly define the stem cell population characteristics differentiating them from other cell types, such as fibroblasts. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare phenotypic and functional characteristics of orbital fat-derived stem cells (OFSCs) and fibroblasts resident in the eyelid skin in donor-matched samples grown in culture medium supplemented with pooled allogeneic human serum (HS) replacing fetal bovine serum (FBS). We first investigated the proliferative effects of OFSCs on HS, and then we compared the alkaline phosphatase (AP) expression and activity, immunophenotypic profile, and in vitro multilineage differentiation potential of OFSCs side-by-side with fibroblasts. The results showed that HS enhanced OFSCs proliferation without compromising their immunophenotype, AP activity, and osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation capacities. In contrast to OFSCs, the fibroblasts did not exhibit AP expression and activity and did not have multilineage differentiation potential. The results enabled us to successfully distinguish OFSCs from fibroblasts populations, suggesting that AP expression/activity and multilineage differentiation assays can be used reliably to discriminate mesenchymal stem cells from fibroblasts. Our findings also support the feasibility of pooled allogeneic HS as a safer and more effective alternative to FBS for clinical applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Morphology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, thaismmmartins@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Thaís Maria da Mata
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Ana Cláudia Chagas
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: de Paula
authors.forename: Dawidson Assis
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Alfredo Miranda
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Goes
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000166:cytology*; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005123:Eye; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D006801:Humans; D009915:Orbit; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase