The Effect of Human Umbilical Cord Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Hepatoma Cell HepG2

Abstract

Wharton’s jelly is an unlimited source of stem cells that can be used in cell therapy and tissue engineering without any ethical concern. We aimed to investigate the effect of umbilical-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) and their conditioned media (CM) and co-culture media on in vitro human hepatoma cancer model system (HepG2 cell line) cell tumorigenesis. The proliferation rate of HepG2 cells was measured using the trypan blue method and MTT assay. Gene expression of Survivin, PCNA, Beta-Catenin, Telomerase and VEGF in several time intervals (24, 48, 72 hrs.) in conditioned media and co-culture media by using real-time PCR. Our data revealed decreased proliferation rate in HepG2 cell line treated with conditioned and co-cultured media accompanied with downregulation of gene expression at different-time intervals of incubation (24, 48, 72 hrs.) of Survivin, PCNA, -Catenin, Telomerase and VEGF. It was noticed that UC-MSCs and their CM suppressed the expression of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) an important markers of HCC carcinogenicity as well as gene expression of PCNA, Telomerase, VEGF, βcatenin and Survivin. These findings spot new light on the therapeutic role for UCMSCs and their CM and co-culture media in controlling HCC invasiveness and carcinogenesis.