Ricerc@Sapienza

Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are an attractive source for regenerative medicine as they can be easily iso-lated, rapidly expandable in culture and show excellent in vitro differentiation potential. Acetylcholine (ACh), one of the main neurotransmitters in central and peripheral nervous systems, plays key roles in the control of several physiological processes also in non-neural tissues. As demonstrated in our previous studies, ACh can contribute to the rat ASCs physiology, negatively modulating ASCs proliferation and migration via M2 mus-carinic receptor (mAChR) activation.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), also known as stromal mesenchymal stem cells, are multipotent cells, which can be found in many tissues and organs as bone marrow, adipose tissue and other tissues. In particular MSCs derived from Adipose tissue (ADSCs) are the most frequently used in regenerative medicine because they are easy to source, rapidly expandable in culture and excellent differentiation potential into adipocytes, chondrocytes, and other cell types.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by leucocytes infiltration, demyelination, axonal degeneration and neuronal death. Although the etiology of MS is still unknown, inflammation and autoimmunity are considered to be key players of the disease. The severe alterations affecting the nervous system contribute to the motor and cognitive disabilities and are in large part dependent on severe inflammatory processes active in both central nervous system and immune system.

The muscarinic receptor response to acetylcholine regulates the hippocampal-related learning, memory, neural plasticity and the production and processing of the pro-nerve growth factor (proNGF) by hippocampal cells. The development and progression of diabetes generate a mild cognitive impairment reducing the functions of the septo-hippocampal cholinergic circuitry, depressing neural plasticity and inducing proNGF accumulation in the brain.