Adipose stem cell-conditioned medium (ASC-CM) has been successfully used to treat multiple types of tissue and organ defects, including skin wounds both in vitro and in vivo. However, the mechanisms through which ASC-CM promotes wound healing remain unclear. We hypothesized that the wound healing effect of ASC-CM is mediated in part by the promotion of the migration of vascular endothelial cells, fibroblasts and keratinocytes, the three cell types essential for wound healing. We reported that ASC-CM stimulated the migration of these cells sequentially, and endothelial cells were the first cell type to respond to ASC-CM stimulation (4 h), followed by fibroblasts (12 h) and then keratinocytes (24 h). We also determined the optimal concentration of ASC-CM in stimulating these cells (50% dilution) in addition to the optimal time to intervene in order to maximize the wound healing activity of ASC-CM. Our data suggest an important role for ASC-CM in wound healing, possibly through the synthetic action of multiple adipose stem cell-derived cytokines that in turn promote cell migration. Thus, ASC-CM appears to have significant potential in wound healing applications.
Keywords: adipose stem cell-conditioned medium; fibroblasts; keratinocytes; migration; vascular endothelial cells.