Effects of age on biological and functional characterization of adipose‑derived stem cells from patients with end‑stage liver disease.

Adipose‑derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ADSCs) possess a multilineage potential and immunoregulatory properties, and may have great potential in autologous cell‑based technologies. The aim of the present study was to investigate how the age of patients with benign end‑stage liver disease affected the biological and functional characteristics of ADSCs, which is important for increasing the potential effectiveness of autologous cell therapy. ADSCs were obtained and cultured from three distinct age groups: Infant, adult and elderly. Cell immunophenotypic characteristics and antiapoptotic capacity were determined by flow cytometry, and cell proliferation and migration were monitored with a Real‑Time Cell Analyzer. Multilineage differentiation potential was investigated by evaluating the induction response and by reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Suppression of T cell proliferation was assessed in a co‑culture system by MTT assay. The regulatory T cells (Tregs) were analyzed by flow cytometry, and ELISAs were performed to detect the cytokine profile in culture supernatants. All ADSC sample phenotypes were characterized as CD90+/CD73+/CD105+/CD45‑/CD34‑, and the apoptotic rate was not statistically different among all ages. However, the proliferation and migratory capacity were significantly increased in infant‑derived ADSCs. In addition, ADSCs derived from infant patients demonstrated a relatively high proclivity for osteogenic differentiation compared with cells derived from either adult or elderly patients. Furthermore, ADSCs co‑cultured with mitogen‑activated T cells significantly suppressed T‑cell proliferation, downregulated the secretion of interferon‑γ and increased the percentage of Tregs, with infant‑derived ADSCs being most effective. Results from the present study indicated that ADSCs derived from infant patients may have biological advantages compared with older cell sources, and may provide an effective reference for the clinical application of ADSCs.