Louis Casteilla's Biography

Louis Casteilla, Director STROMALab, University of Toulouse

After an initial and double education (animal physiology and agronomy) and since my PhD, I have always worked on topics related to the development of adipose tissue either in animals (ruminants, rodents) or humans. My work has always focused on the plasticity of adipose tissue which is also the title of the team that I lead from my recruitment. Adipose tissue develops after birth and can be easily sampled by liposuction. Like bone marrow, adipose tissues hosts a heterogeneous stromal cell population among which, mesenchymal stromal like cells derived from adipose tissues named ASC (adipose derived stroma cells). From such source, we isolated, characterized and cultured different cell types able to regenerate vascular bed. We were the first to demonstrate to demonstrate the great angiogenic properties of adipose derived stem cells, to patent it, to create a start-up and to set-up the first internation clinical trial in the world after setting-up a GMP protocol tp produce the cells. We also demonstrated that ASC inhibit lymphocyte mixed reactivity suggesting these cells display immunomodulatory properties. In collaboration, we set-up and scale up a GMP culture process in order to use ASC in clinical perspectives. We also recently demonstrated that ASC could egress from adipose tissue to home inside lymph nodes and participate to the stroma remodelling occurring after immunisation. Finally, we just publish that lactate, a key intermediate metabolite, is able to trigger browning process via a redox mechanism.