Anti-Leukemic Effect of Wharton Jelly Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Vitro

Abstract

Besides that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the capacity for self-renewal and multipotency, their possible anti-cancer effects making them a primary candidate for cell-based therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate in vitro anti leukemic effect of Wharton Jelly derived MSC (WJ-MSC) on the K562 and HL-60 cells.In this study, WJ-MSCs were isolated from an umbilical cord. According to standard culture conditions, the cells incubated and characterized by flow cytometry. For experiments, WJ-MSC and leukemic cells were incubated in the direct co-culture at a ratio of 1:5 (leukemia cells:WJ-MSC). We analyzed the apoptotic effect of WJ-MSCs on K562 and HL-60 cells with AnnexinV/PI assay by flow cytometry. After the direct co-culture of WJ-MSCs on leukemic cell lines, we observed anti-leukemic effect by inducing apoptosis. We had 2 groups of determination apoptosis with and without WJ-MSCs. In untreated and treated experimental groups for K562, we found increasing of apoptosis respectively (from 3,7% to 11,5%). For HL-60 cells, when compared between two groups apoptosis percentages were 15% (untreated) and 56% (treated). The increasing ratio of apoptotic cells was (approximately 3 folds) similar both for HL-60 and K562 cells.MSCs are known to inhibit tumor growth of hematopoitic and non-hematopoietic origin in vitro. Treatment with WJ-MSC led to potentproliferation inhibition of HL-60 and K562 cells with inducing apoptosis. Our results provide new insight into how WJ-MSCs inhibit tumor growth in vitro. In the future, WJ-MSCs may be an option for their clinical use for the inhibition of cancer cells.