BackgroundCell-based therapy is a treatment method in tendon injuries. Bone morphogenic protein 12 (BMP-12) possesses tenogenic activity and was proposed as a differentiating factor for stem cells directed to transplantation. However, BMPs belong to pleiotropic TGF-β superfamily and have diverse effect on cells. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if BMP-12 induces tenogenic differentiation of human adipose stem cells (hASCs) and how it affects other features of this population.ResultsHuman ASCs from 6 healthy donors were treated or not with BMP-12 (50 or 100 ng/ml, 7 days) and tested for gene expression (COLL1, SCX, MKH, DCN, TNC, RUNX2), protein expression (COLL1, COLL3, MKH), proliferation, migration, secretory activity, immunomodulatory properties and susceptibility to oxidative stress. RT-PCR revealed up-regulation of SCX, MKH and RUNX2 genes in BMP-12 treated cells (2.05, 2.65 and 1.87 fold in comparison to control, respectively, p < 0.05) and Western Blot revealed significant increase of COLL1 and MHK expression after BMP-12 treatment. Addition of BMP-12 significantly enhanced secretion of VEGF, IL-6, MMP-1 and MPP-8 by hASCs while had no effect on TGF-β, IL-10, EGF and MMP-13. Moreover, BMP-12 presence in medium attenuated inhibitory effect of hASCs on allo-activated lymphocytes proliferation. At the same time BMP-12 displayed no influence on hASCs proliferation, migration and susceptibility to oxidative stress.ConclusionBMP-12 activates tenogenic pathway in hASCs but also affects secretory activity and impairs immunomodulatory potential of this population that can influence the clinical outcome after cell transplantation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12860-017-0129-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Our study does not produce any data suggesting increased cancer risk following breast reconstruction after a mastectomy or a lumpectomy combined with local radiotherapy. It may be concluded that an autologous transplantation of fat augmented with ASC is a safe and efficient procedure. Longer observation time and the observation of larger numbers of patients would be useful for strengthening the conclusion.

The clinical outcome of autologous adipose stem cell (ASC) treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) was investigated following one year of observation. Methods. The clinical and MRI outcomes of 16 ASC-treated patients with RRMS and SPMS are reported after a one-year follow-up period. Results. At 18 months of follow-up, some patients showed “enticing” improvements on some exploratory efficacy measures, although a significant benefit was not observed for any measure across the entire group. Neither the progression of disability nor relapses were observed in any cases. In four patients, we found new gadolinium+ (Gd+) lesions on MRI. Our results indicate that ASC therapy is safe and does not produce any substantial side effects. Disease progression-free survival (PFS) of 18 months was seen in all patients with RRMS and SPMS. In these patients, EDSS scores did not progress above baseline scores. Gd-enhancing lesions were observed in two cases with RRMS, but these patients did not exhibit changes in EDSS score. Conclusion. Intrathecal treatment with ASCs is an attractive form of therapy for patients with MS but should be reserved for cases with aggressive disease progression, for cases that are still in the inflammatory phase, and for the malignant form.

Although mesenchymal stem cells are used in numerous clinical trials, the safety of their application is still a matter of concern. We have analysed the clinical results of the autologous adipose-derived stem cell treatment (stromal vascular fraction (SVF) containing adipose-derived stem cells, endothelial progenitors, and blood mononuclear cells) for orthopedic (cartilage, bone, tendon, or combined joint injuries) and neurologic (multiple sclerosis) diseases. Methods of adipose tissue collection, cell isolation and purification, and resulting cell numbers, viability, and morphology were considered, and patient's age, sex, disease type, and method of cell administration (cell numbers per single application, treatment numbers and frequency, and methods of cell implantation) were analysed and searched for the unwanted clinical effects. Results of cellular therapy were compared retrospectively to those obtained with conventional medication without SVF application. SVF transplantation was always the accessory treatment of patients receiving “standard routine” therapies of their diseases. Clinical experiments were approved by the Bioethical Medical Committees supervising the centers where patients were hospitalised. The conclusion of the study is that none of the treated patients developed any serious adverse event, and autologous mesenchymal stem (stromal) cell clinical application is a safe procedure resulting in some beneficial clinical effects (not analysed in this study).

Clinical experiments suggest that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may be useful for tissue repair therapies or treatment of the autoimmune disorders. There is still lack of consensus concerning the age limit of MSC donors, majority of researchers suggest the autologous MSC therapies of patients not exceeding age limit of 55-60 yrs. The purpose of our study was to compare the selected parameters of MSCs from adipose tissue (adipose stem cell, ASC) collected from young and old rats of ages corresponding to patient’s ages 25 yrs. and 80 yrs., respectively. The differences of parameters of ASCs from young and old animals were compared with the differences between ASCs from short-term (3 passage) and long-term (30 passage) in vitro culture. Cell morphology, surface marker expression, growth potential, metabolic activity, β-galactosidase activity, clonogenic potential, angiogenic potential, and differentiation ability of ASCs from young and aged animals and from in vitro cultures at 3rd and 30th passages were compared and analyzed. It may be concluded that ASCs may be applied for autologous transplantations in aged patients. Comparison of ASC aging dynamics depending on host aging or in vitro culture duration suggests that long-term in vitro culture may affect ASCs more than natural aging process of their host. We suggest that ASCs expanded in vitro prior to their clinical use must be carefully screened for the possible aging effects resulting not only from donor age, but from the duration of their in vitro culture.