ToF-SIMS study of differentiation of human bone-derived stromal cells: new insights into osteoporosis

Lipids have numerous important functions in the human body, as they form the cells’ plasma membranes and play a key role in many disease states, presumably also in osteoporosis. Here, the fatty acid composition of the outer plasma membranes of cells differentiated into the osteogenic and adipogenic direction is studied with surface-sensitive time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). For data evaluation, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied. Human (bone-derived) mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) from an osteoporotic donor and a control donor are compared to reveal differences in the fatty acid composition of the membranes. The chemical information is correlated to staining and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (rt-qPCR) results to provide insight into the gene expression of several differentiation markers on the RNA level. Adipogenic differentiation of hMSCs from a non-osteoporotic donor correlates with increased relative intensities of all fatty acids under investigation. After osteogenic differentiation of non-osteoporotic cells, the relative mass signal intensities of unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic acids are increased. However, the osteoporotic cells show increased levels of palmitic acid in the plasma membrane after exposure to osteogenic differentiation conditions, which correlates to an immature differentiation state relative to non-osteoporotic osteogenic cells. This immature differentiation state is confirmed by increased early osteogenic differentiation factor Runx2 on RNA level and by less calcium mineralization spots seen in von Kossa staining and ToF-SIMS images. Graphical abstract Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry is applied to analyze the fatty acid composition of the outer plasma membranes of cells differentiated into the adipogenic and osteogenic direction. Cells from an osteoporotic and a control donor are compared to reveal differences due to differentiation and disease stage of the cells.