Stem Cell Research & Therapy (Jan 2021)

Identification of ALP+/CD73+ defining markers for enhanced osteogenic potential in human adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells by mass cytometry

  • Daisy D. Canepa,
  • Elisa A. Casanova,
  • Eirini Arvaniti,
  • Vinko Tosevski,
  • Sonja Märsmann,
  • Benjamin Eggerschwiler,
  • Sascha Halvachizadeh,
  • Johanna Buschmann,
  • André A. Barth,
  • Jan A. Plock,
  • Manfred Claassen,
  • Hans-Christoph Pape,
  • Paolo Cinelli

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-020-02044-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 16

Abstract

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Abstract Background The impressive progress in the field of stem cell research in the past decades has provided the ground for the development of cell-based therapy. Mesenchymal stromal cells obtained from adipose tissue (AD-MSCs) represent a viable source for the development of cell-based therapies. However, the heterogeneity and variable differentiation ability of AD-MSCs depend on the cellular composition and represent a strong limitation for their use in therapeutic applications. In order to fully understand the cellular composition of MSC preparations, it would be essential to analyze AD-MSCs at single-cell level. Method Recent advances in single-cell technologies have opened the way for high-dimensional, high-throughput, and high-resolution measurements of biological systems. We made use of the cytometry by time-of-flight (CyTOF) technology to explore the cellular composition of 17 human AD-MSCs, interrogating 31 markers at single-cell level. Subcellular composition of the AD-MSCs was investigated in their naïve state as well as during osteogenic commitment, via unsupervised dimensionality reduction as well as supervised representation learning approaches. Result This study showed a high heterogeneity and variability in the subcellular composition of AD-MSCs upon isolation and prolonged culture. Algorithm-guided identification of emerging subpopulations during osteogenic differentiation of AD-MSCs allowed the identification of an ALP+/CD73+ subpopulation of cells with enhanced osteogenic differentiation potential. We could demonstrate in vitro that the sorted ALP+/CD73+ subpopulation exhibited enhanced osteogenic potential and is moreover fundamental for osteogenic lineage commitment. We finally showed that this subpopulation was present in freshly isolated human adipose-derived stromal vascular fractions (SVFs) and that could ultimately be used for cell therapies. Conclusion The data obtained reveal, at single-cell level, the heterogeneity of AD-MSCs from several donors and highlight how cellular composition impacts the osteogenic differentiation capacity. The marker combination (ALP/CD73) can not only be used to assess the differentiation potential of undifferentiated AD-MSC preparations, but also could be employed to prospectively enrich AD-MSCs from the stromal vascular fraction of human adipose tissue for therapeutic applications.

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