The effect of autophagy in the process of adipose-derived stromal cells differentiation into astrocytes.

Autophagy plays different roles in the growth and development process of different cells. The role of autophagy in the differentiation process of adult adipose-derived stromal cells (ADSCs) into astrocytes is unclear. We researched the role of autophagy in the induction process by adding autophagy agonist rapamycin, which was not added in the control group. Immunocytochemistry showed that the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was increased gradually with the extending reaction time and had reached the peak on the 14th day. Typical autophagy ultrastructure, including autophagic bodies and self-macrophage lysosomal, was shown under transmission electron microscopy (TEM) when cells were induced for 14 days. By methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay, we found that the number of living cells was reduced gradually, and early apoptosis rate was increased by flow cytometry. We observed that the differentiation ratio, the number of living cells, and the positive expression rates of GFAP in the rapamycin group were higher than those in the control group when ADSCs were induced for 48 h and 7 days (P < 0.01); however, the rates of early apoptosis were lower than those in the control group. The positive rate of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3) in the rapamycin group had been up to 88.87% on the 7th day (P < 0.01), but not obvious with extending time. After 14 days of induction, the optical density (OD) value of surviving cells was declined, and early apoptosis rate was increased gradually. The results showed that adding autophagy agonist to the inducers may enhance intensity of autophagy, shorten the induction time, and improve the efficiency of differentiation.