Stem from the promise of stem cells therapeutic potential for a number of diseases, the regenerative medicine is reaching enthusiastic proportions nowadays. Current therapies include drug treatment, lifestyle modification, organ transplantation, RNA interference "breakthrough technology", and stem cell-based therapy. Research on stem cells is a multiplex challenge provoking both the attention and the confusion of biologists, biotechnologists, medical specialists, and politicians. By integrating various approaches of transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, current adipobiology has identified more than 100 secretory proteins that are produced by the adipose tissue. These proteins designated adipokines include growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, neuropeptides and hypothalamic hormones/releasing factors. In addition, the adipose tissue`s secretome contains steroid hormones, free fatty acids, prostaglandins, and endocannabinoinds. Moreover, adipose tissue is the source of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC). Current interest in the ADSC stems from their multilineage differentiation potential, and ease of derivation in larger quantities using less invasive methods, compared with other stem cell types. The possible benefits of ADSC-based therapy may be mediated via cell proliferation/differentiation and/or paracrine mechanisms. The present review, focusing on adipose tissue secretory activity, also highlights the possible implication of ADSC in the therapy of various disorders, particularly neurodegenerative diseases, myocardial infarction and stroke, along with gut and liver diseases.
Biomedical Reviews 2010; 21: 57-63.
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