Involvement of glycosphingolipids in multipotent stromal cell differentiation

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are known to play key roles in a variety of biological processes, such as cell proliferation and differentiation, programmed cell death and stress responses. Therefore, it was not surprising that few recent studies reported their involvement in stem cell differentiation. Thus, we decided to focus our attention on mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), which are the most abundant and studied adult cell precursors. MSCs have been obtained from various mesodermal and non-mesodermal tissues, although the majority of the therapeutic applications involve bone marrow derived MSCs (BM-MSC). More recently, the use of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSC) has also been studied, as they can be easily obtained from fat in large numbers. Based on these premises we analyzed the variation of the sphingolipid pattern of mesenchymal cells from adipose tissue and bone marrow during their differentiation into osteoblasts and smooth muscle cells. Main goal of this study was to identify key molecules that may play a regulatory role in differentiation. Indeed, we have observed a significant change in the ganglioside pattern of MSCs-derived osteoblasts and smooth muscle cells, as compared to the starting stem cells, as well as within multipotent cells of different origin. Further study will try to modify the abundance of these identified key molecules to promote or inhibit cell differentiation.