Lipidomics of mesenchymal stem cells undergoing adipogenesis

Abstract

Obesity is recognized as a top ten global health problem by the World Health Organisation. Dietary habits are one of the main contributing factors to obesity. Recently, recruitment of progenitors from the bone marrow also contributes to obesity, thus obesity is now considered to occur via mechanisms of hypertrophy and hyperplasia. In this in vitro study, we characterize lipidome changes during adipogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) using thin layer chromatography and sensitive mass spectrometry. In addition to the expected increase of triacylglycerols in adipocytes, we also found lower levels of total phospholipids in adipocytes than in MSC. Despite this decrease, phosphatidylglycerol (PG) shows consistent increase over three timepoints and at a level higher in adipocytes than in MSC. The increase in PG can be due to an increase in mitochondria numbers. The possible causes for the steady decrease in phospholipids and progressive increase in triacylglycerols can be related to the effects of lipin and/or phospholipases. These findings suggest that lipids are more than just structural entities; they also play a more dynamic role in cellular functions.