Purification of Adipose Tissue Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Differentiation Toward Hepatic-Like Cells

There is a great interest in the development of functional hepatocytes in vitro from different types of stem cells. Multipotential mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) compose a great source for stem cell based therapy, especially, because they can be obtain from patients own tissues, sidestepping immunocompatibility and ethical issues. Among MSCs from different sources, adipose-tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs) are very promising because of their high accessibility, proliferation ability, potentiality, and immunocompatibility. AT-MSCs can be easily isolated from stroma vascular fraction (SVF) of adipose tissue. They represent a heterogeneous population of cells. The precise AT-MSCs’s marker profile has not been defined yet; therefore, it is still not obvious how to purify these heterogeneous fraction of cells. We postulate that one of the markers defining MSC provenance is CD105 (endoglin). Therefore, we have sorted CD105+ fraction of AT-MSCs, expanded them, and differentiated toward hepatic-like cells. In order to check their potentiality, we have firstly differentiated sorted CD105+ AT-MSCs toward mesoderm lineages, using commercialized protocols. We have shown here, that pure CD105+ AT-MSCs fraction revealed higher homogeneity and differentiation potential toward adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic lineages and highly inducible into the hepatogenic lineage. Generated (by using our hepatic differentiation protocol) CD105+ AT-MSCs-derived hepatic-like cells expressed hepatocyte markers, enzymes, and functions.