Vitamin C promotes the proliferation of human adipose-derived stem cells via p53-p21 pathway.

ABSTRACTAlthough adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) have demonstrated a promising potential for the applications of cell-based therapy and regenerative medicine, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) are harmful to ADSCs cell survival and proliferation. Vitamin C is an important antioxidant, and is often added into culture media as an essential micronutrient. However, its roles on the proliferation of human ADSCs have not been studied. Therefore, in this study, human ADSCs were isolated, and detected by flow cytometry for the analysis of their cell surface antigens. Cell proliferation and cell cycle progression were measured with cell counting kit-8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of cyclin E1, p53, p21, and CDK2 proteins. The effect of vitamin C pretreatment on the production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-mediated ROS in the ADSCs was evaluated by flow cytometry. Our results indicated that vitamin C treatment significantly increased cell p...