Hypoxia Promotes Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell (VSMC) Differentiation of Adipose-Derived Stem Cell (ADSC) by Regulating Mettl3 and Paracrine Factors

Adipose-derived stem cell (ADSC) is an alternative and less invasive source of mesenchymal stem cells which can be used to develop biological treatment strategies for tissue regeneration, and their therapeutic applications hinge on an understanding of their physiological characteristics. N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) is the most common chemical modification of mRNAs and has recently been revealed to play important roles in cell lineage differentiation and development. However, the role of m6A modification in the vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) differentiation of ADSCs remains unclear. Herein, we investigated the expression of N6-adenosine methyltransferases (Mettl3) and demethylases (Fto and Alkbh5) and found that Mettl3 was upregulated in ADSCs undergoing vascular smooth muscle differentiation induction. Moreover, silence of Mettle3 reduced the expression level of VSMC-specific markers, including α-SMA, SM22α, calponin, and SM-MHC. Meanwhile, Mettl3 knockdown also decreased the expression of paracrine factors, including VEGF, HGF, TGF-β, GM-CSF, bFGF, and SDF-1. In addition, our results suggested that hypoxia stress promotes the ADSC differentiate into VMSCs and regulates the secretion of VEGF, HGF, TGF-β, GM-CSF, bFGF, and SDF-1 by mediating Mettl3 gene expression. These observations might contribute to novel progress in understanding the role of epitranscriptomic regulation in the VSMC differentiation of ADSCs and provide a promising perspective for new therapeutic strategies for tissue regeneration.