Differential gene expression profiling of human adipose stem cells differentiating into smooth muscle-like cells by TGFβ1/BMP4

- Human adipose stem cells (hASCs) were isolated, characterized and cultured.
- Growth factor combinations were evaluated for their effectiveness in differentiation using IHC.
- hASCs were differentiated into smooth muscle (SM)-like cells using TGF-β1 and BMP4 combination.
- Microarray analysis was performed for hASCs, SM-like cells and coronary artery-SMCs.
- Microarray data was used to perform hierarchical clustering and interpretation of activated pathways.

Regenerative repair of the vascular system is challenging from the perspectives of translational medicine and tissue engineering. There are fundamental hurdles in front of creating bioartificial arteries, which involve recaputilation of the three-layered structure under laboratory settings. Obtaining and maintaining smooth muscle characteristics is an important limitation, as the transdifferentiated cells fail to display mature phenotype. This study aims to shed light on the smooth muscle differentiation of human adipose stem cells (hASCs). To this end, we first acquired hASCs from lipoaspirate samples. Upon characterization, the cells were induced to differentiate into smooth muscle (SM)-like cells using a variety of inducer combinations. Among all, TGFβ1/BMP4 combination had the highest differentiation efficiency, based on immunohistochemical analyses. hSM-like cell samples were compared to hASCs and to the positive control, human coronary artery-smooth muscle cells (hCA-SMCs) through gene transcription profiling. Microarray findings revealed the activation of gene groups that function in smooth muscle differentiation, signaling pathways, extracellular modeling and cell proliferation. Our results underline the effectiveness of the growth factors and suggest some potential variables for detecting the SM-like cell characteristics. Evidence in transcriptome level was used to evaluate the TGFβ1/BMP4 combination as a previously unexplored effector for the smooth muscle differentiation of adipose stem cells.