Cholinergic effects mediated by M2 muscarinic receptor in human Schwann-like cells induced from adipose mesenchymal stem cells

Cholinergic effects mediated by M2 muscarinic receptor in human Schwann-like cells induced from adipose mesenchymal stem cells Piovesana R.1,2, Faroni A.2, Tata AM1, Reid A.2 1Dept. Biol and Biotech. C. Darwin, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Rome, Italy; 2Blond McIndoe Lab, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; Schwann cells (SCs) have an important role in peripheral nerve regeneration but there are several restrictions on their clinical application. Adipose derived stem cells (ASCs) present good properties for cell therapies. When exposed to selective growth factors, they can acquire a SC-like phenotype (dASCs), expressing key SCs markers. Our group has demonstrated in rat model that M2 muscarinic receptor causes in vitro, a reversible arrest of cell proliferation, increasing SCs myelinating phenotype. Human dASCs, as rat dASCs, express muscarinic receptors. In the present work we evaluate if M2 muscarinic receptor activation may contribute to human dASCs proliferation and phenotype. M2 selective activation by selective agonist APE, causes a decreased cell proliferation, modulating the expression of gene involved in the proliferative state (i.e. c-jun and egr2) and neurotrophic factors. Although further analyses are needed to best characterise the role of M2 receptor, these data are the first evidence that its selective activation may have effects also on human dASCs proliferation and may favourite a neuroprotective environment relevant for nerve regeneration.