Stem Cells Converted to Working Fat Cells
Microscopic scaffolding coaxes them to function like normal tissue
Betterhumans Staff
3/23/2005 12:22 PM
Microscopic scaffolding has been used to coax stem cells into working fat cells identical to those in normal tissue.
The experiment, by Douglas Kniss of Ohio State University and colleagues, could lead to improvements in such things as breast reconstruction surgery.
Conventionally, cells are grown as flat deposits in a growth medium.
While resulting tissue patches can be useful, two-dimensional cell colonies often lack genes, proteins and hormones produced by normal cells.
"We know that the environment in which a community of cells finds itself has a great deal of influence on the biology underway within those cells," says Kniss. "And that biology is always translated into changes in gene expression and assemblies of proteins."
Matrix mimic
So Kniss and colleagues built scaffolding from a material called polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
They spun PET fibers into a mat resembling the intracellular matrix bonding cells in normal tissue. Just several nanometers across, the fibers provide tensile strength to support growing tissue, says Kniss.
The researchers then seeded the scaffolding with pre-adipocytes—cells transitioning from stem cells to fat cells.
About two weeks later, the pre-adipocytes had transformed into true fat cells.
The cells were able to absorb lipids just as normal fat cells do. The researchers also determined that they expressed the expected genes and proteins.
To date, the researchers have kept the cells alive and thriving for several months. They aim to maintain them for up to a year.
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