Conditioned medium from human tonsil-derived mesenchymal stem cells inhibits glucocorticoid-induced adipocyte differentiation

PLoS One. 2022 Jun 1;17(6):e0266857. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266857. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Obesity, which has become a major global health problem, involves a constitutive increase in adipocyte differentiation signaling. Previous studies show that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) induce weight loss and glycemic control. However, the mechanisms by which MSCs regulate adipocyte differentiation are not yet known. In this study, we investigated the effects of conditioned medium obtained from human tonsil-derived MSCs (T-MSC CM) on adipocyte differentiation. We found that T-MSC CM attenuated adipocyte differentiation from early stages via inhibiting glucocorticoid signaling. T-MSC CM also increased the phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and glucocorticoid receptors and decreased the subsequent nucleus translocation of glucocorticoid receptors. Chronic treatment of mice with synthetic glucocorticoids induced visceral and bone marrow adipose tissue expansion, but these effects were not observed in mice injected with T-MSC CM. Furthermore, T-MSC CM injection protected against reductions in blood platelet counts induced by chronic glucocorticoid treatment, and enhanced megakaryocyte differentiation was also observed. Collectively, these results demonstrate that T-MSC CM exerts inhibitory effects on adipocyte differentiation by regulating glucocorticoid signal transduction. These findings suggest that the therapeutic application of T-MSC CM could reduce obesity by preventing adipose tissue expansion.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adipocytes / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Culture Media, Conditioned / metabolism
  • Culture Media, Conditioned / pharmacology
  • Glucocorticoids* / metabolism
  • Glucocorticoids* / pharmacology
  • Humans
  • Immunologic Factors / pharmacology
  • Mesenchymal Stem Cells*
  • Mice
  • Obesity / metabolism
  • Palatine Tonsil
  • Receptors, Glucocorticoid / metabolism

Substances

  • Culture Media, Conditioned
  • Glucocorticoids
  • Immunologic Factors
  • Receptors, Glucocorticoid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2017R1E1A1A01073021 to Kyung-Ha Ryu who performed conceptualization, data interpretation, and manuscript review and 2020R1C1C1014665 to Yu-Hee Kim who performed collection and assembly of data, data analysis and interpretation, and manuscript writing) and RP-Grant 2021 of Ewha Womans University to Yu-Hee Kim.