Use of adipose-derived stem cells in high-throughput screening to identify modulators of lipogenesis

Drug discovery efforts have an increasing focus on functional cell-based screening to identify compounds that modulate targets presented in a relevant format. Historically, immortalized cell lines have been used in primary and secondary screens due to their ease of manipulation, transformation, and propagation. However, more researchers are using primary cells that present their drug targets in their natural context. Human primary cell isolation and propagation procedures have become efficient enough to provide these cells in the necessary scale for early stage drug discovery. Adult human stem cells provide an opportunity for investigating multiple pathways of differentiation, development, regeneration, and toxicity using a single cell source and type. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are an attractive adult human primary stem cell for drug discovery due their abundance in adipose tissue, ease of isolation, and propagation in culture. They can be expanded in high numbers and retain their unique properties to differentiate into multiple lineages. In this chapter, we describe a protocol to identify modulators of human ASC lipogenesis following partial differentiation to adipocytes.