Distinct Stem cells subpopulations isolated from human adipose tissue with different chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation potential

Recently adipose tissue has become a research
topic also for the searching for an alternative stem cells
source to use in cell based therapies such as tissue engineer.
In fact Adipose Stem Cells (ASCs) exhibit an important
differentiation potential for several cell lineages such as
chondrogenic, osteogenic, myogenic, adipogenic and endothelial
cells. ASCs populations isolated using standard
methodologies (i.e., based on their adherence ability) are
very heterogeneous but very few studies have analysed this
aspect. Consequently, several questions are still pending, as
for example, on what regard the existence/ or not of distinct
ASCs subpopulations. The present study is originally aimed
at isolating selected ASCs subpopulations, and to analyse
their behaviour towards the heterogeneous population
regarding the expression of stem cell markers and also
regarding their osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation
potential.