Adipogenic differentiation of scaffold-bound human adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hASC) for soft tissue engineering

Adipose tissue engineering, instead of tissue substitution, often uses autologous adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hASC). These cells are known to improve graft integration and to support neovascularization of scaffolds when seeded onto biomaterials. In this study we thought to engineer adipose tissue using scaffold-bound hASC, since they can be differentiated into the adipocyte cell lineage and used for soft tissue regeneration. We show here by microscopy and gene expression of the peroxysome proliferator-activated receptor gene (PPAR gamma 2) that hASC growing on polypropylene fibrous scaffolds as well as on three-dimensional nonwoven scaffolds can be turned into adipose tissue within 19 days. Freshly isolated hASC displayed a higher differentiation potential than hASC cultured for eight passages. In addition, we proved a modified alginate microcapsule to directly induce adipogenic differentiation of incorporated hASC. The results may help to improve long-term success of adipose tissue regeneration, especially for large-scale soft tissue defects, and support the development of cell-scaffold combinations which can be shaped individually and directly induce the adipogenic differentiation of incorporated hASC at the site of implantation.