BACKGROUND:The repair of temporomandibular joint disc is stil a great clinical chal enge. Pluripotent adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells bring a hope for fibrocartilage tissue repair. Up to now, there are few studies concerning transforming growth factor-β3 to induce differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells into fibrochondrocytes.
OBJECTIVE:To observe the growth and morphology of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells under the induction of transforming growth factor-β3.
METHODS:We observed the morphology of fibrochondrocytes differentiated from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells under the induction of transforming growth factor-β3. Histological and immunofluorescence staining were employed to detect the expression of extracellular matrix Ⅰ, Ⅱ col agens and proteoglycansthe produced by adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. We also evaluated the feasibility of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells as seed cells for fibrocartilage tissue engineering.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Under the inverted fluorescence microscope, induced cells showed obvious aggregation growth, polygonal shape, and increased secretion of extracellular matrix. Alcian blue staining results showed that under the induction of transforming growth factor-β3, adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells exhibited the distinctly deep blue, indicating a large number of glycosaminoglycan was synthesized. Immunostaining results showed that under the induction of transforming growth factorβ3, adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells synthesized extracellular matrix Ⅰ, Ⅱ col agen. These findings suggest that transforming growth factorβ3 can induce adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into fibrouscartilage-like cells, and that adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells can serve as seed cells for fibrocartilage tissue engineering.