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©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Circulating factors present in the sera of naturally skinny people may influence cell commitment and adipocyte differentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells
Nicola Alessio, Tiziana Squillaro, Vincenzo Monda, Gianfranco Peluso, Marcellino Monda, Mariarosa AB Melone, Umberto Galderisi, Giovanni Di Bernardo
Nicola Alessio, Umberto Galderisi, Giovanni Di Bernardo, Department of Experimental Medicine, Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Section, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples 80138, Italy
Tiziana Squillaro, Mariarosa AB Melone, Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological, Metabolic and Aging Sciences, 2nd Division of Neurology, Center for Rare Diseases and InterUniversity Center for Research in Neurosciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples 80138, Italy
Vincenzo Monda, Marcellino Monda, Department of Experimental Medicine, Human Physiology and Unit of Dietetic and Sports Medicine Section, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples 80138, Italy
Gianfranco Peluso, Institute Bioscience and BioResources, CNR, Naples 80131, Italy
Author contributions: Alessio N and Squillaro T performed the majority of experiments and analyzed the data; Melone MAB and Peluso G performed the molecular investigations; Monda V and Monda M participated equally in collected samples and clinical analysis; Galderisi U and Di Bernardo G designed and coordinated the research; Di Bernardo G wrote the paper.
Supported by a 2018 Grant of Experimental Medicine Department (Luigi Vanvitelli Campania University) to Umberto Galderisi and Marcellino Monda (partially).
Institutional review board statement: Experimental protocols were approved by the Ethical Committee from Campania University “Luigi Vanvitelli”.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Giovanni Di Bernardo, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Experimental Medicine, Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Section, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via S.M. Costantinopoli 16, Naples 80138, Italy. gianni.dibernardo@unicampania.it
Telephone: +39-81-5665838
Received: November 10, 2018
Peer-review started: November 11, 2018
First decision: November 29, 2018
Revised: January 28, 2019
Accepted: March 12, 2019
Article in press: March 12, 2019
Published online: March 26, 2019
BACKGROUND
Research on physiopathology of obesity may receive new hints from studies on skinny people (SP). These are individuals who show a poor or null gaining of body weight, in spite of high-calorie intake, by far exceeding the body requirements.
AIM
To evaluate how circulating factors present in the SP sera may affect adipogenesis of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs).
METHODS
We isolated MSCs from bone marrow of healthy donors with both normal body mass index (BMI) and caloric consumption. MSC cultures were primed with sera collected from SP or normal people (NP). Then biomolecular assays were performed to evaluate effect on proliferation, apoptosis, senescence, cell commitment, and differentiation.
RESULTS
SP priming affected adipocyte cell commitment and reduced spontaneous adipogenesis. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of exogenous-induced adipocyte differentiation showed striking differences between differentiation in SP-primed samples compared with NP ones. In adipocytes from SP cultures we observed a reduced size of lipid droplets, an increased expression of adipose triglyceride lipase, along with high mitochondria content and ability to produce ATP in starvation condition. These data and the expression of UCP1 protein, indicated that SP pretreatment produced a bias toward brown adipocyte differentiation.
CONCLUSION
Our data suggest that sera from SP may promote brown adipogenesis rather that white adipocyte differentiation. This finding could explain why SP present normal body composition in spite of an excess of caloric intake. We hypothesize that some circulating components present in the blood of these individuals may favor brown adipogenesis at expense of white adipocyte production.
Core tip: Obesity may receive new hints from studies on skinny people (SP). These are individuals who show a poor or null gaining of body weight, in spite of high-calorie intake, by far exceeding the body requirements. We evaluated how circulating factors present in the SP sera may affect adipogenesis of mesenchymal stromal cells. Our finding suggests that sera from SP may promote brown adipogenesis rather that white adipocyte differentiation. Our data could explain why SP present normal body composition in spite of an excess of caloric intake.
