Altered properties of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cell during continuous in vitro cultivation

Adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) are now recognized as an accessible, abundant, and reliable stem cells for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, ASCs should be expanded long term in order to harvest higher cell number for clinical application. In this study, ASCs isolated from human subcutaneous adipose tissue and senescence after long-term expansion was evaluated. The results showed that following in vitro expansion to the 15th passage, ASCs show changes in morphology (toward the “fried egg” morphology) and decrease in proliferation potential. Nonetheless, ASCs maintained differentiation potential toward osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. The senescent ASCs show impaired migration capacity under the same basal conditions. OXPHOS and glycolysis decreased slightly in culture from passage 5 to passage 15. ASCs also showed increased accumulation of beta-galactosidase in culture. Expression of senescence markers p53, p16, and p21 were also increased accompanied with the increase of passages. Experiment data showed that ASCs biological characteristics depended and changed with age. We recommend the use of early-passage cells, particularly those before passage 5, for efficacious therapeutic application of stem cells.