Focal Adhesion Kinase Activation Is Necessary for Stretch-Induced Alignment and Enhanced Differentiation of Myogenic Precursor Cells.

Myogenic precursors sense and dynamically respond to mechanical stimulation through complex integrin-mediated mechanotransduction, in which focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a fundamental intracellular signaling mediator. When skeletal myoblasts are exposed to uniaxial cyclic tensile strain (UCTS), they display uniform alignment and an enhanced rate of differentiation. In this work, we explored the role of FAK activation by using C2C12 myoblasts that were grown on flexible culture plates and exposed to UCTS during the early differentiation phase.

Discrete adipose-derived stem cell subpopulations may display differential functionality after in vitro expansion despite convergence to a common phenotype distribution.

Background: Complex immunophenotypic repertoires defining discrete adipose-derived stem cell (ASC) subpopulations may hold a key toward identifying predictors of clinical utility. To this end, we sorted out of the freshly established ASCs four subpopulations (SPs) according to a specific pattern of co-expression of six surface markers, the CD34, CD73, CD90, CD105, CD146, and CD271, using polychromatic flow cytometry.

Method: Using flow cytometry-associated cell sorting and analysis, gating parameters were set to select for a CD73CD90CD105 phenotype plus one of the four following combinations, CD34CD146CD271 (SP1), CD34CD146CD271 (SP2), CD34CD146CD271 (SP3), and CD34CD146CD271 (SP4).

Uniaxial cyclic strain enhances adipose-derived stem cell fusion with skeletal myocytes.

Although adult muscle tissue possesses an exceptional capacity for regeneration, in the case of large defects, the restoration to original state is not possible. A well-known source for the de novo regeneration is the adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), which can be readily isolated and have been shown to have a broad differentiation and regenerative potential. In this work, we employed uniaxial cyclic tensile strain (CTS), to mechanically stimulate human ASCs to participate in the formation skeletal myotubes in an in vitro model of myogenesis.