Syngenic Adipose-Derived Stem/Stromal Cells Delivered in Decellularized Adipose Tissue Scaffolds Enhance In Vivo Tissue Regeneration Through Host Cell Recruitment
Decellularized adipose tissue (DAT) represents a promising adipogenic bioscaffold for applications in soft tissue augmentation or reconstruction. With the goal of investigating the role of syngeneic donor adipose-derived stem/stromal cells (ASCs) and host myeloid cells during in vivo adipose tissue regeneration, transgenic reporter mouse strains were used to track these cell populations within ASC-seeded and unseeded DAT scaffolds. Donor ASCs were obtained from dsRed transgenic mice. These cells were shown to express characteristic cell surface markers, and multilineage differentiation capacity was confirmed. To facilitate cell tracking, DAT scaffolds were subcutaneously implanted into MacGreen mice in which myeloid cells express enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). ASC-seeded DAT scaffolds augmented total cell recruitment as well as adipogenesis, and influenced EGFP+ myeloid cell infiltration kinetics within the implants. The donor dsRed+ ASCs were retained within the DAT scaffolds up to 8 weeks post-implantation, and did not contribute directly to the newly formed adipocytes