Human Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hASCs) are of great interest because of their potential for therapeutic approaches. The method described here covers every single step necessary for hASCs isolation from subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue, multicolor phenotyping by flow cytometry, and quantitative determination of adipogenic differentiation status by means of lipid droplets (LDs) accumulation, and Western blot analysis. Moreover, to simultaneously analyze both LDs accumulation and cellular proteins localization by fluorescence microscopy, we combined Oil Red O (ORO) staining with immunofluorescence detection. For LDs quantification we wrote a program for automatic ORO-stained digital image processing implemented in Octave, a freely available software package. Our method is based on the use of the traditional low cost neutral lipids dye ORO, which can be imaged both by bright-field and fluorescence microscopy. The utilization of ORO instead of other more expensive lipid-specific dyes, together with the fact that the whole method has been designed employing cost-effective culture reagents (standard culture medium and serum), makes it affordable for tight-budget research laboratories. These may be replaced, if necessary or desired, by defined xeno-free reagents for clinical research and applications.

Adipose tissue is an attractive source of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) owing to the relative ease of obtaining large volumes with more MSC abundance compared with other sources. Increasing evidence supports the fact that trophic factors secreted by MSCs play a pivotal therapeutic role. Several strategies in regenerative medicine use MSCs, mainly exploiting their immunosuppressive effect and homing capacity to sites of damage. Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is a pleiotropic cytokine that, depending on the cell niche, can display either anti-inflammatory or proinflammatory effects. TGF-β1 expression increases in various tissues with damage, especially when accompanied by inflammation. Thus, we analyzed the effect of TGF-β1 on the secretion by adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (ASCs) of a panel of 80 cytokines/chemokines using an antibody array. To avoid a possible effect of fetal bovine serum (FBS) on ASCs secretion, we performed our analysis by culturing cells in FBS-free conditions, only supplemented with 0.1% of bovine serum albumin. We report the cytokine profile secreted by ASCs. We also found that TGF-β1 exposure modulates 8 chemokines and 18 cytokines, including TGF-β1 and -β2, and other important cytokines involved in immunosuppression, allergic responses, and bone resorption.