PGC-1 alpha Mediates Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells toward Brown Adipose Cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a multipotent cell type that can differentiate into non-hematopoietic cells, such as adipocytes. Adipocyte tissue is central to regulate energy balance. PGC-1 alpha controls several aspects of mitochondrial biogenesis. However, roles of PGC-1 alpha in brown fat differentiation of MSCs remain uncertain. To investigate roles of PGC-1 alpha in brown fat differentiation immortalized human MSCs were used for all experiments. The changes in genetic profiling between MSCs and PGC-1 alpha-expressing MSCs were analyzed by microarray analysis. The genetic profiling of PGC-1 alpha-expressing MSCs shows the significant increase of genes related to mitochondrial functions and lipid metabolism compared to that of MSCs. When expressed in MSCs, PGC-1 alpha activates a robust mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration. The expression of thermogenic markers, such as cytochrome C and complex II, was significantly increased in MSCs with treatment of adenovirus expressing PGC-1 alpha. Our microarray results also indicate that genetic pattern of PGC-1 alpha-expressing MSCs is very closed to that of adipose tissues.

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