The Effects of Environmental Factors on Smooth Muscle Cells Differentiation from Adipose-Derived Stem Cells and Esophagus Tissues Engineering

Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are increasingly being used for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) can be differentiated from ASCs. Oxygen is a key factor influencing the stem cell differentiation. Tissue engineered esophagus has been a preferred solution for diseased esophagus replacement. The first part involved the effect of hypoxia on differentiation. The results showed 5% hypoxia to be the optimal condition for differentiation of ASCs into contractile SMCs. In the second part, the combined effects of mechanical strain (10% cyclic tensile strain) and biochemical factor stimulation on SMCs differentiation were studied. The results showed that combined treatments promoted the late SMC-specific marker smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (MHC) expression. In the third part, the potential for using ASCs to replace SMCs to regenerate the smooth muscle layer of esophagus was studied. Our results showed that both SMCs and ASCs could attach on the porcine esophageal acellular matrix (EAM) scaffold in vitro after 24 hours and survive until 7 days. Thus ASCs might be a substitute for SMCs in the construction of tissue engineered esophageal muscle layer.