Induction of differentiation of bmMSCs into brown adipocytes

Article information
ECM microenvironment unlocks brown adipogenic potential of adult human bone marrow-derived MSCs.
Lee MH, Goralczyk AG, Kriszt R, Ang XM, Badowski C, Li Y, Summers SA, Toh SA, Yassin MS, Shabbir A, Sheppard A, Raghunath M.
Sci Rep. 2016 Feb 17;6:21173. PMID: 26883894

Overview
Brown adipocytes promote non-shivering thermogenesis and diet-induced thermogenesis via uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1); it has been estimated that a mere 50 g of brown adipose tissue is responsible for 20% of daily energy consumption in humans.

Brown adipocytes are expected to be of use in cell therapy and the pharmaceutical industry. However, there is no ready source of brown adipose precursor cells, nor does there exist an efficient method for differentiation of such progenitors into mature cells.

Therefore, the authors attempted to improve the efficiency of differentiation of bmMSCs into brown adipocytes by using a technique called Macromolecular Crowding (MMC).

The authors reported that MMC monolayer culture (performed using Ficoll) exhibited enhanced UCP1 expression, increased lipolysis, and an increased number of lipid droplets (compared to the control group).

Additionally, in the MMC monolayer culture group, adipocytes were wrapped (“cocooned”) by a fine meshwork of type IV collagen.

Notably, the same appearance, as well as enhanced UCP1 expression, was observed in 3D culture using type I collagen gel instead of MMC with Ficoll.

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