Human breast adipose­derived stem cells: characterization and differentiation into mammary gland­like epithelial cells promoted by autologous activated platelet­rich plasma.

Human adipose­derived stem cells (ASCs) isolated from various body sites have been widely investigated in basic and clinical studies. However, ASCs derived from human breast tissue (hbASCs) have not been extensively investigated. In order to expand our understanding of hbASCs and examine their potential applications in stem cell research and cell­based therapy, hbASCs were isolated from discarded surgical fat tissue following reduction mammoplasty and a comprehensive characterization of these hbASCs was performed, including analysis of their cellular morphology, growth features, cell surface protein markers and multilineage differentiation capacity. These hbASCs expressed cluster of differentiation (CD)44, CD49d, CD90 and CD105, but did not express CD31 and CD34. Subsequently, the hbASCs were differentiated into adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes in vitro. In order to examine the potential applications of hbASCs in breast reconstruction, an approach to promote in vitro differentiation of hbASCs into mammary gland­like epithelial cells (MGECs) was developed using activated autologous platelet­rich plasma (PRP). A proliferation phase and a subsequent morphological conversion phase were observed during this differentiation process. PRP significantly promoted the growth of hbASCs in the proliferation phase and increased the eventual conversion rate of hbASCs into MGECs. Thus, to the best of our knowledge, the present study provided the first comprehensive characterization of hbASCs and validated their multipotency. Furthermore, it was revealed that activated autologous PRP was able to enhance the differentiation efficiency of hbASCs into MGECs. The present study and other studies of hbASCs may aid the development of improved breast reconstruction strategies.

Effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on proliferation and neural phenotype differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells in vitro.

AIMS: To investigate whether ginsenoside Rg1 can promote neural phenotype differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) in vitro. METHODS: hASCs were isolated from lipo-aspirates, and characterized by specific cell markers and multilineage differentiation capacity after culturing to the 3rd passage. Cultured hASCs were treated with neural inductive media alone (group A, control) or inductive media plus 10, 50, or 100 µg/mL ginsenoside Rg1 (groups B, C, and D, respectively). Cell proliferation was assessed by CCK-8 assay. Neuron specific enolase (NSE) and microtubule-associated protein-2 (MAP-2) levels were measured by Western blot. mRNA levels of growth associated protein-43 (GAP-43), neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), and synapsin-1 (SYN-1) were determined by real-time PCR. RESULTS: Ginsenoside Rg1 promoted the proliferation of hASCs (groups B, C, and D) and resulted in higher expression of NSE and MAP-2 compared with the control group. Gene expression levels of GAP-43, NCAM, and SYN-1 in the test groups were higher than that in thw control. The results displayed a dose-dependent effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on cell proliferation and neural phenotype differentiation. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that ginsenoside Rg1 promotes cell proliferation and neural phenotype differentiation of hASCs in vitro, suggesting a potential use for hASCs in neural regeneration medicine.