Mannino G, Cristaldi M, Giurdanella G, Perrotta RE, Lo Furno D, Giuffrida R, Rusciano D. ARPE-19 conditioned medium promotes neural differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. World J Stem Cells 2021; 13(11): 1783-1796 [PMID: 34909123 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i11.1783]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Debora Lo Furno, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 97, Catania 95123, CT, Italy. lofurno@unict.it
Research Domain of This Article
Physiology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Stem Cells. Nov 26, 2021; 13(11): 1783-1796 Published online Nov 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i11.1783
ARPE-19 conditioned medium promotes neural differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells
Giuliana Mannino, Martina Cristaldi, Giovanni Giurdanella, Rosario Emanuele Perrotta, Debora Lo Furno, Rosario Giuffrida, Dario Rusciano
Giuliana Mannino, Giovanni Giurdanella, Debora Lo Furno, Rosario Giuffrida, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Catania 95123, CT, Italy
Martina Cristaldi, Dario Rusciano, Research Center, SOOFT-Italia S.p.A., Catania 95123, CT, Italy
Rosario Emanuele Perrotta, Department of General Surgery and Medical-Surgery Specialties, University of Catania, Catania 95100, CT, Italy
Author contributions: Mannino G, Lo Furno D and Rusciano D conceptualized and designed the study, and drafted the article; Cristaldi M and Giurdanella G contributed to the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; Giuffrida R and Perrotta RE contributed to critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript; All authors contributed to the collection of literature, reviewed the manuscript and approved the version to be published.
Supported byUniversity of Catania, Italy, “Piano Triennale per la Ricerca 2020-2022–Grant PIACERI, project “NanoRet”.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the local ethics committee (Comitato etico Catania1; Authorization n. 155/2018/PO).
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: No animals were used in the present study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines. No animals were used in the present study.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Debora Lo Furno, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 97, Catania 95123, CT, Italy. lofurno@unict.it
Received: May 5, 2021 Peer-review started: May 5, 2021 First decision: June 23, 2021 Revised: June 25, 2021 Accepted: October 15, 2021 Article in press: October 15, 2021 Published online: November 26, 2021 Processing time: 203 Days and 16.5 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Based on their multipotent differentiation ability, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been widely investigated in the last two decades in order to develop cell-based therapeutic strategies for a variety of human pathologies including eye disease.
Research motivation
In many cases, available therapeutic approaches are not satisfactory to counteract the loss of retinal cells. Thus, administration of pre-differentiated MSCs may produce beneficial outcomes and improve the quality of life of patients suffering ocular diseases.
Research objectives
The aim of the investigation was to obtain a neural-like differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) using a serum-free culture medium, resembling the physiologic eye microenvironment.
Research methods
A serum-free conditioned medium (CM) from ARPE-19, a cell line derived from human retinal pigment epithelium, has been used to promote ASC neural differentiation. Immunofluorescence and western blot analysis were used to evaluate modifications of typical neural marker expression: Nestin, neuronal specific enolase, protein gene product 9.5, and glial fibrillary acidic protein.
Research results
Neural marker expression was increased in a time-dependent manner. In fact, CM effects were particularly evident after 8 d of treatment. Moreover, cell proliferation and viability were favored by the presence of ARPE-19 CM.
Research conclusions
The method adopted in the present study provided encouraging results to develop cell-based strategies for ocular diseases characterized by neural cell loss or degeneration.
Research perspectives
At the next stage of the study, neural-like pre-differentiated ASCs would be implanted in rodent models of ocular diseases to verify their survival rate and possible beneficial effects.
