The Role of Pannexin 1 during Human Adipogenesis in vitro
Abstract
Obesity is the unhealthy accumulation of adipose tissue and affects 10% of the global population. A study reported the loss of mouse pannexin 1 (Panx1), a large channel forming protein, increased adipogenesis in murine adipose derived stem cells (ASCs). Our study was designed to determine if human pannexin 1 (PANX1) inhibits adipogenesis in vitro using human ASCs and induced-mesenchymal stem cells (iMSCs) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Pharmacological inhibition of PANX1 using carbenoxolone halted adipogenesis in both the ASCs and iMSCs. When PANX1 was inhibited by probenecid, adipogenesis was impeded in iMSCs, but not in ASCs. PANX1-ablated iPSCs were able to differentiate into iMSCs and further differentiate along the adipogenic lineage. Our findings indicate that PANX1 expression is not essential for iPSC differentiation to iMSCs, nor adipogenesis, and the contrasting responses of iMSCs and ASCs to probenecid suggests that mesenchymal stem cells from different origins have distinct characteristics.