Generation of Human Adipose Stem Cells through Dedifferentiation of Mature Adipocytes in Ceiling Cultures

Summary

Mature adipocytes may represent an abundant source of stem cells through dedifferentiation, which leads to a homogenous population of fibroblast-like cells. Collagenase digestion is used to isolate mature adipocytes from human fat. The goal of our protocol is to obtain multipotent, dedifferentiated fat cells from human mature adipocytes.

Abstract

Mature adipocytes have been shown to reverse their phenotype into fibroblast-like cells in vitro through a technique called ceiling culture. Mature adipocytes can also be isolated from fresh adipose tissue for depot-specific characterization of their function and metabolic properties. Here, we describe a well-established protocol to isolate mature adipocytes from adipose tissues using collagenase digestion, and subsequent steps to perform ceiling cultures. Briefly, adipose tissues are incubated in a Krebs-Ringer-Henseleit buffer containing collagenase to disrupt tissue matrix. Floating mature adipocytes are collected on the top surface of the buffer. Mature cells are plated in a T25-flask completely filled with media and incubated upside down for a week. An alternative 6-well plate culture approach allows the characterization of adipocytes undergoing dedifferentiation. Adipocyte morphology drastically changes over time of culture. Immunofluorescence can be easily performed on slides cultivated in 6-well plates as demonstrated by FABP4 immunofluorescence staining. FABP4 protein is present in mature adipocytes but down-regulated through dedifferentiation of fat cells. Mature adipocyte dedifferentiation may represent a new avenue for cell therapy and tissue engineering.

Introduction

In vitro dedifferentiation of mature adipocytes is achieved through a technique called ceiling culture¹. Because of their natural tendency to float in aqueous solutions, isolated mature adipocytes adhere to the surface of an inverted flask fully filled with culture medium. Over a few days, cells modify their spherical morphology and become fibroblast-like cells. The resulting cells, called dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells, are multipotent². Research articles on adipocyte dedifferentiation, especially on human cells, are limited. However, they have already provided interesting information regarding multipotency, cell phenotype and replic....

Protocol

Ethics statement: The project has been approved by IUCPQ’s Research Ethics Committee prior to patient recruitment. For the purpose of this article/video, we obtained tissues from 2 patients: 1) a 62 year-old male patient with a BMI of 50.7 kg/m² and 2) a 35 year-old female patient with a BMI of 57 kg/m². Experiments can be done with both fat compartments, but have been limited to one fat compartment for the purpose of this video. Technical aspects of the video were performed with patient 1 and FABP4 immunofluorescence was performed with dedifferentiated cells from patient 2.

1. Sample Processing

1. Ask s....

Results

Major morphological changes occur to mature adipocytes during dedifferentiation (Figure 1). As shown in Figure 2, cells undergoing dedifferentiation were stained with an anti-FABP4 antibody for fluorescence analysis. Cells with a round morphology expressed the FABP4 protein whereas the majority of the fibroblast-like cells did not. After dedifferentiation, DFAT cells can be cultivated with standard procedures for several passages. We have been able to reach more than 15 passages for huma.......

Discussion

Dedifferentiation of mature adipocytes with the ceiling culture technique is a new approach to obtain adipose stem cells from a small sample of native adipose tissue. Based on our experience and that of others², one gram of tissue is sufficient to plate a 25-cm² flask and to obtain a population of DFAT cells for which homogeneity has been demonstrated by Poloni and collaborators³. Adipocyte dedifferentiation seems possible with cells from any donor, independently of their age, sex and oth.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Bovine serum albumine	Sigma	A7906
Adenosine	Sigma	A4036
Ascorbic acid	Sigma	A0278
NaCl			Any brand can be used
KCl			Any brand can be used
CaCl2			Any brand can be used
MgCl2			Any brand can be used
KH2PO4			Any brand can be used
HEPES			Any brand can be used
Glucose			Any brand can be used
Type I collagenase	Worthington Biochemical Corp	LS-004196
DMEM/F-12, HEPES, no phenol red	Gibco-Life Technologies	11039-021	Add to medium : 20% calf serum, gentamicin (50 µg/ml) and fungizone (2.5 µg/ml)
Calf Serum, iron supplemented, from formula-fed calves	Sigma	C8056-500 ml
1/2 In plastic bushing	Iberville	2704-CP	SKU:1000120918 (Home Depot)
Liquid nitrogen	Linde
Formalin soluton, neutral buffered, 10%	SIGMA	HT501128
Sterile tweezers
Sterile scissors
60 cc syringes	BD Syringe
Plastic tubing
Krebs-Ringer-Henseleit stock buffer (KRH)			Prepare stock buffer as following: 25 mM HEPES pH 7.6, 125 mM NaCl, 3.73 mM KCl, 5 mM CaCl2.2H2O, 2.5 mM MgCl2.6H2O, 1 mM K2HPO4. Adjust pH to 7.4.
Krebs-Ringer-Henseleit-Working Buffer (KRH-WB)			Add the following components freshly to KRH buffer: 4% bovine serum albumin, 5 mM glucose, 0.1 µM adenosine, 560 µM ascorbic acid
KRH-WB supplemented with Type I collagenase			Add 350 U/ml of Type I collagenase
T25 unvented cap tissue culture flask	Sarsted or other brand
6-well tissue culture plate	BD Falcon or other brand
Microscope cover glass 22x22	Fisherbrand	12-542-B
Sterile beakers