Abstract
Background: Brown adipose tissue plays a pivotal role in mammal metabolism and thermogenesis. It has a great therapeutic potential in several metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are suitable candidates for brown adipose tissue formation de novo. Pparγ2 and C/ebpα are nucleic receptors known to mediate adipogenic differentiation. We hypothesized that overexpression of the Pparγ2 and C/ebpα genes in MSCs would lead to the formation of adipose tissue. Materials & methods: MSCs bearing the Luc reporter gene were transfected to overexpress Pparγ2 and C/ebpα. Differentiation of nucleofected cells was evaluated in vitro and in vivo following ectopic implantation of the cells in C3H/HeN mice. Results: After implantation, the engineered cells survived for 5 weeks and brown adipose-like tissue was observed in histological samples. Immunostaining and bioluminescent imaging showed new adipocytes expressing Luc and the brown adipose tissue marker, UCP1, in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: We show that gene delivery of transcription factors into MSCs generates brown adipose tissue in vitro and in vivo.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 295-308 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Regenerative Medicine |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- adipogenesis
- bioluminescent imaging
- brown adipose tissue
- MSCs
- nucleofection