2017 Volume 76 Issue 5 Pages 175-185
Mature adipocyte-derived dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells have a high proliferative activity and multi-lineage differentiation potential, similar to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). We hypothesized that DFAT cells isolated from different organ-derived adipose tissues would exhibit different properties. In the present study, we isolated DFAT cells from epicardial fat tissue (EC-DFAT) and subcutaneous fat tissue (SC-DFAT) from pigs and examined their differentiation capacity into cardiomyocytes. In vitro differentiation analysis revealed that both EC-DFAT and SC-DFAT cells exhibited adipogenic, osteogenic, chondrogenic and smooth muscle cell differentiation potential. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis revealed that expression of GATA binding protein 4 (GATA4), a marker for early differentiation of cardiomyocytes, was significantly higher in EC-DFAT cells compared with SC-DFAT cells under culture conditions for cardiomyocyte differentiation. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that expression of the cardiomyocyte-specific transcription factor Nkx2.5, the gap junction protein connexin43 and the cardiac muscle-specific protein troponin I was frequently observed in EC-DFAT cells but not in SC-DFAT cells when the cells were cocultured with rat neonatal cardiomyocytes. These findings suggest that EC-DFAT cells can effectively differentiate into functional cardiomyocytes. EC-DFAT cells may be an attractive cell source for cardiomyocyte regeneration.
