Differentiate into urothelium and smooth muscle cells from adipose tissue-derived stem cells for ureter reconstruction in a rabbit model

Ureter reconstruction is still a tough task for urologist. Cell-based tissue engineering serves a better technique for patients with long segments of ureter defect who need ureter reconstruction. In this study, we sought to evaluate the differentiation potential of adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) into urothelial lineage and smooth muscle lineage and to assess the possibility of ureter reconstruction using differentiated cells seeded vessel extracellular matrix (VECM) in a rabbit model. ADSCs were isolated from adipose tissue and identified in vitro. Subsequently, they were cultured with induction medium for urothelium and smooth muscle phenotypes differentiation. After 14 days inducing, differentiation was evaluated by Quantitative PCR and western blot studies. After fluorescent protein labeling, the differentiated cells were seeded onto VECM and cultured under dynamic conditions in vitro. After 7 days culturing, the cell-seeded graft was tubularized and wrapped by two layers of the omentum in a rabbit. Three weeks later, the maturated graft was used for ureter reconstruction in vivo. The ADSCs were isolated and cultured in vitro. Flow cytometry demonstrated that the ADSCs expressed CD29 and CD90, but did not express CD34. After induction, urothelium phenotypes gene (cytokeratin 7) and smooth muscle expression gene (a-SMA and SM-MHC) was confirmed in mRNA and protein level. After cells seeding onto VECM, the induced urothelium cells formed a single epithelial layer, and the induced smooth muscle cells formed a few cell layers during dynamic culture. After 3 weeks of omental maturation, tubular graft was vascularized and comprised epithelial layer positively with cytokeratin 7, cytokeratin 20 on the luminal aspect. At 8 weeks post ureter reconstruction, histological evaluation showed a clearly layered structure of ureter with terminally differentiated multilayered urothelium positively with cytokeratin 20 and uroplakin III over connective smooth muscle tissue positively with a-SMA and SM-MHC. The labeled induced cells could be observed in the reconstructed ureter. We demonstrated that ADSCs could differentiate into urothelial and smooth muscle lineage. Tissue engineered graft by these differentiated cells seeded on VECM could be employed to long segments ureter reconstruction after omental maturation in vivo.