[Adipose stromal cells--plastic type of cells with high therapeutic potential]

Much effort has been made in searching for multipotent cell types with high therapeutic potentials for repair of damaged tissue. Through enzymatic digestion of fat tissue, it is possible to obtain a large number of stromal cells. Isolated cells show a high proliferate capacity in culture. All this makes adipose stromal cells (ASC) promising candidates for their use in cell therapy. This review is focused on analyzing the surface antigen profile of isolated population of ASC, expression of angiogenic factors by these cells, as well as on their differentiation potential. A high percentage of ASC population initially express the progenitor cell marker CD34, but during culturing, cells exhibit a mesenchymal cell phenotype and express CD29, CD105, CD106, CD166. Culturing ASC in specific differentiation media induces expression of early markers of differentiated mesenchymal cells, such as adipocytes, chondrocytes and osteoblasts, as well as myoblasts, cardiomyocytes and neural cells. It has been also shown that ASC have a strong pro-angiogenic potential, they are able to secret growth factors, such as VEGF, HGF, bFGF and others, which stimulate survival and proliferation of endothelial cells. In addition, systemic or local delivery of ASC to mice with hindlimb ischemia stimulates recovery of injured tissue and blood flow. Potential clinical uses of ASCs are discussed in the review.