ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Exploring the differentiation potential of Adipose tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells and progenitor Buccal Epithelial Cells into Urothelial Cells
Provisionally accepted
Monika Buhl1*
Arkadiusz Jundziłł1,2
Paweł Dąbrowski1
Kamil Szeliski1Marta Rasmus1
Tomasz Kloskowski1Łukasz Kaźmierski1Tomasz Drewa1Marta Pokrywczyńska1- 1Chair of Urology and Andrology, Department of Regenerative Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland
- 2Department of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Esthetic Surgery, Collegium Medicum, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland
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Abstract Background: Nowadays, an intestinal wall is the most commonly used substitution material in reconstructive urology. However, this strategy is associated with many complications. Tissue engineering techniques can replace the intestinal wall with an in vitro-created urinary tract substitute. Biomaterial seeding with Urothelial Cells (UCs) would increase the success of the regeneration process. The problem in many patients requiring urinary reconstruction is the lack of autologous UCs. This study aimed to compare the differentiation possibilities of porcine Mesenchymal Adipose Tissue-Derived Stromal/Stem cells (AD-MSCs) and progenitor Buccal Epithelial Cells (pBECs) towards UCs. UCs, AD-MSCs, and BECs were isolated from tissues harvested from domestic pigs. The conditioned medium was collected from UC cultures (UC-CM) between the 1st and 3rd passage (n=5). AD-MSC and BEC cultures were exposed to UC-CM for 7 and 14 days. UCs from the 3rd passage ("0" day) were used as a positive control. The differentiation effect of UC-CM was characterized by analysis of selected UC-typical markers at the mRNA and protein levels. Results: AD-MSCs subjected to urothelial differentiation changed their morphology from fibroblast-like to epithelium-like. In BECs, the differentiation factor increased the expression of urothelial markers, including CK8, UPK1B, and UPKIII. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that pBECs have a higher potential to differentiate towards urothelial-like cells than AD-MSCs. The UC-CM is the source of factors inducing the differentiation of pBECs towards urothelial-like cells. Buccal epithelium can be used as a cell source for reconstructive urology applications.
Keywords: differentiation, Urothelial cells, buccal epithelial cells, Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem cells, conditioned medium, progenitor cells, Tissue Engineering, Urology
Received: 17 Aug 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Buhl, Jundziłł, Dąbrowski, Szeliski, Rasmus, Kloskowski, Kaźmierski, Drewa and Pokrywczyńska. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Monika Buhl
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