Cellular and Biochemical Characterization of Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Killian Nasal Polyp

Killian's (antrochoanal) polyp is a unilateral nasal polypoid lesion of the maxillary sinus especially affecting children and young adults with unilateral nasal obstruction, pus discharge, and headache. Although its etiology is unclear, chronic inflammation, autoreactivity, allergies, and viral infections are implicated in its formation and development, causing nasal tissue remodeling. In this context, we isolated and cultured mesenchymal stem cells from surgical biopsies of three patients with Killian nasal polyp (KNP-MSCs) while healthy nasal tissue (HNT-MSCs) was used as control. Our results demonstrated that KNP-MSCs exhibited reduced cell proliferation compared to HNT-MSCs, and migrated less than the control, showing a partial epithelial phenotype with low mRNA levels of I-CAM and a significant increase of E-cad. Subsequently, both MSCs were induced to osteoblastic or adipocyte differentiation for up to 20 days. KNP-MSCs underwent to differentiate into osteoblasts but exhibited reduced ALP activity and calcium deposits and low mRNA levels of osteogenesis-associated genes compared to osteogenic induced-HNT-MSCs. Conversely, KNP-MSCs and HNT-MSCs have shown the same adipogenic differentiation potential, with a similar lipid droplet amount, adipocyte gene expression, and triacylglycerols content. Taken together, these results first demonstrated the cellular and molecular characterization of MSCs derived from the Killian nasal polyp.