Are the Properties of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Influenced by Overweight and Obesity?

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are promising candidates for cell-based therapies. Growing evidence has indicated that overweight/obesity can change the bone marrow microenvironment, which affects some properties of BMSCs. As the overweight/obese population rapidly increases, they will inevitably become a potential source of BMSCs for clinical application, especially when receiving autologous BMSC transplantation. Given this situation, the quality control of these cells has become particularly important. Therefore, it is urgent to characterize BMSCs isolated from overweight/obese bone marrow environments. In this review, we summarize the evidence of the effects of overweight/obesity on the biological properties of BMSCs derived from humans and animals, including proliferation, clonogenicity, surface antigen expression, senescence, apoptosis, and trilineage differentiation, as well as the underlying mechanisms. Overall, the conclusions of existing studies are not consistent. Most studies demonstrate that overweight/obesity can influence one or more characteristics of BMSCs, while the involved mechanisms are still unclear. Moreover, insufficient evidence proves that weight loss or other interventions can rescue these qualities to baseline status. Thus, further research should address these issues and prioritize developing methods to improve functions of overweight- or obesity-derived BMSCs.