Adipose-Derived Stem Cells from Type 2 Diabetic Rats Retain Positive Effects in a Rat Model of Erectile Dysfunction.

Erectile dysfunction is a common complication associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and after prostatectomy in relation to cancer. The regenerative effect of cultured adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) for ED therapy has been documented in multiple preclinical trials as well as in recent Pase 1 trials in humans. However, some studies indicate that diabetes negatively affects the mesenchymal stem cell pool, implying that ASCs from T2DM patients could have impaired regenerative capacity. Here, we directly compared ASCs from age-matched diabetic Goto-Kakizaki (ASCGK) and non-diabetic wild type rats (ASCWT) with regard to their phenotypes, proteomes and ability to rescue ED in normal rats. Despite ASCGK exhibiting a slightly lower proliferation rate, ASCGK and ASCWT proteomes were more or less identical, and after injections to corpus cavernosum they were equally efficient in restoring erectile function in a rat ED model entailing bilateral nerve crush injury. Moreover, molecular analysis of the corpus cavernosum tissue revealed that both ASCGK and ASCWT treated rats had increased induction of genes involved in recovering endothelial function. Thus, our finding argues that T2DM does not appear to be a limiting factor for autologous adipose stem cell therapy when correcting for ED.

Cell-Assisted Lipotransfer: A Systematic Review of Its Efficacy.

INTRODUCTION: Autologous lipotransfer is seen as an ideal filler for soft tissue reconstruction. The main limitation of this procedure is the unpredictable resorption and volume loss of the fat graft. In the recent decade, an increasing amount of research has focused on the use of adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (ASCs) to enrich the fat graft, a procedure termed cell-assisted lipotransfer (CAL). The aim of this review was to systematically review the current preclinical and clinical evidence for the efficacy of CAL compared with conventional lipotransfer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic search was performed on PubMed and other databases to identify all preclinical and clinical studies where CAL with ASCs was compared with conventional lipotransfer. A total of 20 preclinical studies and seven clinical studies were included in the review. RESULTS: The preclinical studies consisted of 15 studies using immunodeficient animal models and five studies using immunocompetent studies. Seventeen studies examined weight/volume retention of which 15 studies favored CAL over conventional lipotransfer. One clinical study did not find any efficacy of CAL and the remaining six studies favored CAL. CONCLUSIONS: The present evidence suggests that there is a big potential for CAL in reconstructive surgery; however, the present studies are so far still of low quality with inherent weaknesses. Several aspects regarding CAL still remain unknown such as the optimal degree of cell enrichment and also its safety. Further high-quality studies are needed to establish if CAL can live up to its potential. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.

A 3-month age difference profoundly alters the primary rat stromal vascular fraction phenotype.

The stromal vascular fraction (SVF) is a heterogeneous population obtained from collagenase digestion of adipose tissue. When cultured the population becomes more homogeneous and the cells are then termed adipose stromal/stem cells (ASCs). Both the freshly isolated primary SVF population and the cultured ASC population possess regenerative abilities suggested to be mediated by paracrine mechanisms mainly. The use of ASCs and SVF cells, both in animal studies and human clinical studies, has dramatically increased during recent years. However, more knowledge regarding optimal donor characteristics such as age is demanded. Here we report that even a short age difference has an impact on the phenotype of primary SVF cells. We observed that a 3-month difference in relatively young adult rats affects the expression pattern of several mesenchymal stem cell markers in their primary SVF. The younger animals had significantly more CD90+/CD44+/CD29+/PDGFRα+primary cells, than the aged rats, suggesting an age dependent shift in the relative cell type distribution within the population. Taken together with recent studies of much more pronounced age differences, our data strongly suggest that donor age is a very critical parameter that should be taken into account in future stem cell studies, especially when using primary cells.