Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Feb 26, 2025; 17(2): 99326
Published online Feb 26, 2025. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v17.i2.99326
Effects of macrophages on the osteogenic differentiation of adipose tissue-derived stem cells in two-dimensional and three-dimensional cocultures
He-Ao Zhang, Bo-Yu Zhang, Hong-Bo Tang
He-Ao Zhang, Bo-Yu Zhang, Hong-Bo Tang, Department of Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei Province, China
Co-first authors: He-Ao Zhang and Bo-Yu Zhang.
Author contributions: Zhang HA and Zhang BY designed the research, conducted the study, and wrote the manuscript, they contributed equally to this manuscript are co-first authors; Tang HB revised and supervised the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The experiments were approved by the ethical committee of the Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China (IRB ID: TJ-IRB20220740).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data displayed in this study can be obtained in the article. Further questions can be directed to the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong-Bo Tang, Professor, Department of Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1095 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan 430030, Hubei Province, China. tthhbb@sohu.com
Received: July 19, 2024
Revised: November 24, 2024
Accepted: January 23, 2025
Published online: February 26, 2025
Processing time: 219 Days and 14.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The macrophages in three-dimensional (3D) culture inhibited osteogenic differentiation of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs), contrary to the effect in 2D culture. The 3D culture environment might inhibit the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway by increasing N-cadherin expression, and consequently, inhibiting osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs. This study offers a refined protocol for the exploration of ADSCs osteogenesis and provides novel ideas for exploring 3D osteogenesis in ADSCs, fracture repair, and other bone trauma repair.