Myogenic differentiation of ascs using biochemical and biophysical induction

Abstract

Adipose-derived stem/stromal cells (ASCs) constitute a very promising source for cell therapy and tissue engineering approaches as they can be easily obtained in large quantities with comparatively minimal patient discomfort. Moreover, ASCs have multilineage differentiation capacity. Among these, differentiation capacity along the myogenic lineage is of particular interest since myogenic precursors are scarce and obtaining a large number of cells from skeletal muscle biopsies is difficult. Here, we describe a method to effectively induce ASC myogenesis through the combination of biochemical (cocktail including 5-azacytidine and horse serum) and biophysical (dynamic culture via uniaxial cyclic strain) stimulation. This method results in multinucleated cells that are positive in myogenic markers including Pax 3/7, desmin, myoD, and myosin heavy chain.