Neuronal induction and bioenergetics characterization of human forearm adipose stem cells from Parkinson's disease patients and healthy controls

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 15;17(3):e0265256. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265256. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, are heterogeneous disorders with a multifactorial nature involving impaired bioenergetics. Stem-regenerative medicine and bioenergetics have been proposed as promising therapeutic targets in the neurologic field. The rationale of the present study was to assess the potential of human-derived adipose stem cells (hASCs) to transdifferentiate into neuronal-like cells (NhASCs and neurospheres) and explore the hASC bioenergetic profile. hASC neuronal transdifferentiation was performed through neurobasal media and differentiation factor exposure. High resolution respirometry was assessed. Increased MAP-2 neuronal marker protein expression upon neuronal induction (p<0.05 undifferentiated hASCs vs. 28-36 days of differentiation) and increased bIII-tubulin neuronal marker protein expression upon neuronal induction (p<0.05 undifferentiated hASCs vs. 6-28-36 days of differentiation) were found. The bioenergetic profile was detectable through high-resolution respirometry approaches in hASCs but did not lead to differential oxidative capacity rates in healthy or clinically diagnosed PD-hASCs. We confirmed the capability of transdifferentiation to the neuronal-like profile of hASCs derived from the forearms of human subjects and characterized the bioenergetic profile. Suboptimal maximal respiratory capacity trends in PD were found. Neuronal induction leading to positive neuronal protein expression markers is a relevant issue that encourages the suitability of NhASC models in neurodegeneration.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adipose Tissue / metabolism
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Energy Metabolism
  • Forearm
  • Humans
  • Parkinson Disease* / metabolism
  • Stem Cells

Grants and funding

CM and FC were supported by Project number: CP042187 (Fundació Privada Cellex). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.