Acta Histochemica 113 (2011) 501–507 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Histochemica journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/acthis Adipose tissue-derived stem cells for cell therapy of airway allergic diseases in mouse Hyeong-Jun Jang 1 , Kyu-Sup Cho 1 , Hee-Young Park, Hwan-Jung Roh ∗ Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Medical Research Institute, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, South Korea article info Article history: Received 18 January 2010 Received in revised form 28 April 2010 Accepted 3 May 2010 Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cells Bone marrow Adipose tissue Allergy Mice abstract The purpose of this study was to compare murine mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from bone marrow (BM) and adipose tissue (AT) for the selection of suitable MSCs in cell therapy of an airway allergic animal model. We compared MSCs of BALB/c mice derived from BM and AT with respect to prolifera- tion potential, immunophenotype, and multilineage differentiation capacity. In proliferation potential, MSCs from AT (ASCs) showed higher fibroblastoid colony-forming units frequencies and colony-forming efficiency than MSCs from BM (BMSCs). The flow cytometry analysis showed that both ASCs and BMSCs expressed MSCs-related antigens (CD90 and CD105), whereas they did not express hematopoiesis-related antigens (CD45 and CD11b). There was no significant difference in adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondro- genic differentiation between the murine ASCs and BMSCs. In conclusion, the present study has shown that ASCs had higher CFU-F frequencies and colony-forming efficiency than BMSCs. ASCs and BMSCs pre- sented a similar surface immunophenotype and multilineage differentiation capacity. Therefore, ASCs in BALB/c mice might be a more useful material for cell therapy of the airway allergic experiment due to the abundance, relatively easy harvesting and high proliferation potential. © 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Introduction Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) found in many adult tissues are multipotent cells able to self-renew and differentiate into mul- tiple lineages including bone (Delorme and Charbord, 2007; Liu et al., 2007; Titorencu et al., 2007), fat (Delorme and Charbord, 2007; Liu et al., 2007), cartilage (Delorme and Charbord, 2007; Liu et al., 2007), and muscle (Bhagavati and Xu, 2004; Delorme and Charbord, 2007) in the appropriate microenvironment. MSCs may be useful in the repair or regeneration of damaged tissues in Osteogenesis imperfecta, myocardial infarction, injured lung, and stroke (Horwitz et al., 2001; Li et al., 2002; Shake et al., 2002; Rojas et al., 2005). In addition, MSCs possess immunomodulatory properties with thera- peutic potential to prevent graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (Le Blanc et al., 2004). Recently we demonstrated that MSCs also can ameliorate experimental air- way allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis and asthma (Cho et al., 2009; Cho and Roh, 2009). MSCs isolated and cultured from bone marrow (BM) (BMSCs) and adipose tissue (AT) (ASCs) appear to be morphologically similar ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Beomeo-ri, Mul-geum eup, Yang-san Si, Gyeongsangnam-Do, 626-770, South Korea. E-mail address: rohhj@pusan.ac.kr (H.-J. Roh). 1 These authors contributed equally to the content of this article. and express very similar cell-surface markers (Musina et al., 2005; Kern et al., 2006; Bieback et al., 2008; Peng et al., 2008). However, recent studies have demonstrated that MSCs isolated from sev- eral different sources are not a homogenous population and that their differentiation potential may vary depending on the sources and the species (Im et al., 2005; Yoshimura et al., 2007; Hayashi et al., 2008; Koga et al., 2008). In a comparison of human MSCs isolated from BM, umbilical cord blood, and AT, all three sources presented a similar capacity for chondrogenic and osteogenic dif- ferentiation however, they differed in their adipogenic potential (Rebelatto et al., 2008). It has been shown that major differences were observable in the frequencies of colony and their expansion potential, although there are no significant differences concerning the morphology and immune phenotype of human MSCs derived from various sources (Bieback et al., 2008). In the study of MSCs derived from BM, cartilage, and AT in the rat, ASCs showed the highest proliferation potential, followed by MSCs derived from BM and cartilage and MSCs from three sources displayed osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation potential (Peng et al., 2008). The mouse is a suitable experimental model to study the immune modulating effect of MSCs in an airway allergic animal model. Although the selection of ideal murine MSCs is apparently crucial for the outcome of in vivo airway allergic experiments with MSCs, there are no reports comparing the properties of MSCs according to tissue sources in mice, especially BM and AT. 0065-1281/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.acthis.2010.05.003