Dopaminergic induction of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells is accompanied by transcriptional activation of autophagy.

Neural differentiation involves drastic morphological alterations, essentially performed by a cell-homeostasis maintaining process known as autophagy. Here, we used the cocktail of choroid plexus epithelial cell-conditioned medium (CPEC-CM) and 15% knockout serum (KS) to induce human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hASCs) into tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive neuron like cells. We showed that upon this induction, autophagy pathway was transcriptionally triggered. The expression levels of autophagy markers mTOR, BECN1, and MAP1LC3 were evidently changed throughout the dopaminergic (DAergic) differentiation of hASCs, highlighting the critical role of autophagy in this process at the level of transcription.