Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells have similar morphological and biological characteristics to bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, which can be used as sources of seed cells for tissue engineering.
OBJECTIVE: To understand the biological characteristics of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells, and to explore its clinical application and prospects in tissue engineering field.
METHODS: The databases of PubMed and CNKI were searched with key words of “adipose tissue-derived stem cell, tissue engineering, and stem cells”. Literature search was limited to English and Chinese languages. The ossification potential of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells and the outcomes combined adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells with gene transfection to treat diseases were served as evaluative indicators. The in vitro study of comparison between bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in ossification was included, and irrelative or repetitive papers were excluded. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Adipose tissue-derived stem cells can be obtained in large numbers from adipose tissue, and stably proliferate and differentiated in vitro, which possess the similar characteristics to bone marrow-derived menchymal stem cell in morphology and biology. Under certain induction, the adipose tissue-derived stem cells can directional differentiated into all three germ layers of cells. Combined adipose tissue-derived stem cells with tissue engineering scaffold could be used to repair bone and articular cartilage defects, but the quality and the surrounding cartilage connecting cartilage, bio-mechanical strength, and future normal cartilage degradation have a certain gap to normal cartilage. With the understanding of adult mesenchymal stem cell research, it found that the self-amplification and differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells can effective disused the import of “exogenous gene”, thus, it is easy to in vitro genetic modification. Therefore, the adipose-derived stem cells can be combined with genetic engineering, and applied to gene therapy. However, in the present research, the remaining potential carcinogenicity in the gene vector and the negative impact after transfection has not been clarified.