Mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue and Ishikawa cells co-culture highlight the role of adiponectin in endometrial cancer pathogenesis.

Visceral obesity is a risk factor for endometrial cancer (EC). Visceral adipose tissue secretes over 50 inflammatory cytokines that can act centrally to regulate different physiological processes of the body but also remotely involved in communicating messages from the adipose tissue to other target tissues. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effect of in vitro adipose mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on endometrial tumor cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) were isolated from normal subcutaneous (SC) and omentum adipose tissue from one woman without any other pathologies associated during a Fallopian tube ligature intervention. From one patient with EC was also harvested both SC and omentum adipose tissue. Ishikawa cells were cultured in ASCs conditioned medium. Study outcomes included detection of adipokines in cell culture supernatants and cell lysates by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS:Our results indicate that cells from the EC patient's fat tissues migrated during the first days of cultivation and had a high proliferation rate. Ishikawa cells grown in MSCs co-culture showed lower absolute values of adiponectin than the cells cultured individually, having a pro-tumoral effect. The differences were statistically significant compared to Ishikawa cells in monoculture. In supernatants of MSCs, an increase in adiponectin's values in MSCs from SC adipose tissue of the patient with EC (SC cMSCs) was observed in co-culture as compared to monocellular control culture. CONCLUSIONS:Our data confirm the hypothesis that ASCs are an important source of intracellular adiponectin, which increase the EC cell proliferation.