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Impact of direct cell co‐cultures on human adipose‐derived stromal cells and nucleus pulposus cells
Author(s) -
Sun Zhen,
Liu ZhiHeng,
Zhao XuHong,
Sun Lu,
Chen YuFei,
Zhang WeiLin,
Gao Yang,
Zhang YongZhao,
Wan ZhongYuan,
Samartzis Dino,
Wang HaiQiang,
Luo ZhuoJing
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of orthopaedic research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.041
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1554-527X
pISSN - 0736-0266
DOI - 10.1002/jor.22439
Subject(s) - stromal cell , microbiology and biotechnology , extracellular matrix , ctgf , stem cell , phenotype , mesenchymal stem cell , biology , cell culture , adipose tissue , cellular differentiation , chemistry , cancer research , gene , genetics , growth factor , receptor , endocrinology
Biologic and cellular treatment strategies aiming for curing intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) have been proposed recently. Given the convenient availability and expansion potential, adipose‐derived stromal cells (ADSCs) might be an ideal cell candidate. However, the interaction between ADSCs and nucleus pulposus (NP) cells still remains ambiguous, especially in direct co‐cultures of the two types of cells. Nevertheless, NP markers in ADSCs after co‐cultures were unidentified. Here, we addressed the interaction of human ADSCs and NP cells in a direct co‐culture system for the first time. As a result, ADSCs could differentiate to the NP cell phenotype with a significant up‐regulated expression of multiple genes and proteins in extracellular matrix (ECM) ( SOX9 , COL2A1 , ACAN , and COL6A2 ), relative NP markers ( FOXF1 , PAX1 , CA12 , and HBB ) and pertinent growth factors ( CDMP‐1 , TGF‐β1 , IGF‐1 , and CTGF ). Moreover, the gene expression of COL2A1 , ACAN , and COL6A2 of degenerate NP cells was also up‐regulated. Collectively, these results suggest that direct co‐cultures of ADSCs and NP cells may exert a reciprocal impact, that is, both stimulating ADSCs differentiation to the NP cell phenotype and inducing NP cells to regain functional phenotype. Accordingly, ADSCs might be a potential candidate in the development of cellular treatment strategies for IDD. © 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 31:1804–1813, 2013