Long-term in vitro expansion of human adipose-derived stem cells showed low risk of tumourigenicity.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

In the field of cell-based therapy and regenerative medicine, clinical application is the ultimate goal. However, one major concern is: does in vitro manipulation during culture expansion increases tumourigenicity risk on the prepared cells? Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of long-term in vitro expansion on human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs). The ASCs were harvested from lipo-aspirate samples and cultured until passage 20 (P20), using standard culture procedures. ASCs at P5, P10, P15 and P20 were analysed for morphological changes, DNA damage (Comet assay), tumour suppressor gene expression level (quantitative PCR), p53 mutation, telomerase activity, telomere length determination and in vivo tumourigenicity test. Our data showed that ASCs lost their fibroblastic feature in long-term culture. The population doubling time of ASCs increased with long-term culture especially at P15 and P20. There was an increase in DNA damage at later passages (P15 and P20). No significant changes were observed in both p53 and p21 genes expression throughout the long-term culture. There was also no p53 mutation detected and no significant changes were recorded in the relative telomerase activity (RTA) and mean telomere length (TRF) in ASCs at all passages. In vivo implantation of ASCs at P15 and P20 into the nude mice did not result in tumour formation after 4 mo

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

Browse all related research

Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.