PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Maria Meyhoff-Madsen
AU  - Esben Østrup
AU  - Merete Fredholm
AU  - Susanna Cirera
TI  - “Investigating the effect of obesity on adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) using Göttingen Minipigs”
AID  - 10.1101/2022.02.11.477943
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.02.11.477943
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/14/2022.02.11.477943.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/02/14/2022.02.11.477943.full
AB  - Obesity is associated with low grade inflammation, which may adversely impact the biological functions of adipose tissue and consequently of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs). Studies in humans and rodents have described that obesity alters ASC properties and functionality, compromising their therapeutic prospects. The Göttingen Minipig (GM) is a commonly used obesity model. Nevertheless, there are no studies investigating the effect of obesity on ASCs from GM, which could constitute a valuable addition to both obesity modelling and adult stem cells investigations.In this study, we isolated subcutaneous ASCs from lean and obese GM to investigate the effect of obesity on cell behavior and differentiation capacity. During culturing, we observed an inherent difference in cell morphology between lean and obese ASCs. Upon adipogenic induction, obese-ASCs readily differentiated, developing significantly larger amounts of adipocytes than corresponding lean-ASCs, hinting at a predisposition towards adipogenic differentiation. Expression profiling of obesity-related genes in cell cultures, before and after adipogenic differentiation, revealed a tendency towards up-regulation in differentiated obese-cultures. Altogether, our results indicate that stem cells from obese donors could display different therapeutic properties. In summary, our results point towards GM as a valuable model for future ASCs investigations in healthy and obese states.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.