Impact of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells on remodeling the lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharides in mice

Repair effect of photobiomodulation combined with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on rats with acute lung injury

Acute lung injury (ALI) impaired the function of blood oxygen exchange function, resulting in tissue hypoxia and patient death. Recently, human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) are thought to mitigate the effects of ALI, which boosts researchers' interest in employing stem cell-based therapies to manage ALI. However, as a novel therapy, hUCMSCs still face various limitations such as migrating weakly and insufficient proliferation in vivo. Photobiomodulation (PBM) effciently promotes cell proliferation, migration and homing, which presents a promising strategy for overcoming above limitations. In this study, PBM was emerged to intervene hUCMSCs through detecting cell proliferation, oxidative stress-related factors and inflammatory factors. These results assuredly confirmed that PBM enhanced the antioxidant capacity of cells and improved cell survival in vitro experiments. In vivo, PBM-intervened hUCMSCs intuitively reduce thickness of alveolar septum, excessive secretion of inflammatory factors, relieves bleeding, edema and fibrosis. As a physical intervention, PBM further strengthens the therapeutic effect of hUCMSCs and depicted a hopeful therapy in ALI treatment.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells may attenuate lipopolysaccharide-induced liver injury via inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome and hepatocyte pyroptosis

BACKGROUND

The transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal cells (BMSCs) has been shown to be an effective means of treating sepsis-related organ damage. Pytoptotic cell death, in turn, has recently been identified as a key driver of sepsis-related damage. At present, there are few studies on the effect of BMSC transplantation on pytoptotic cell death.

OBJECTIVE

We explored the ability of BMSCs to attenuate hepatic damage in a pyroptosis-related manner in a rat model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced liver injury.

METHODS

Following injury modeling and BMSC transplantation, we assessed the expression of the NLR family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and key downstream pyroptosis-related signaling molecules.

RESULTS

It was found that BMSC transplantation was sufficient to significantly improve rat survival after LPS injection. Significantly reduced expression of the pyroptosis-related proteins NLRP3, caspase-1, IL-1β, and IL-18 in rats that had undergone BMSC transplantation compared to control animals. Notably, this activity was superior to single-agent administration of the NLRP3 inhibitor MCC950.

CONCLUSION

Our data suggest that BMSC transplantation may alleviate LPS-induced hepatic damage by suppressing the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the induction of pyroptotic cell death.

Antioxidant and antiapoptotic paracrine effects of mesenchymal stem cells on spermatogenic arrest in oligospermia rat model

BACKGROUND

Oligospermia is one of the common causative factors of male infertility. Some medical and hormonal therapy for male infertility is typically with unsatisfactory outcome. Stem cell therapy has become a new therapeutic strategy for restoring function in addition to inducing proliferation and differentiation of malfunctioning germ cells. This work aims at investigating the potential ability of BM-MSCs to repair the spermatogenic arrest in oligospermic rat model.

METHODS

In this work, a rat model of oligospermia was induced using two intraperitoneal injections of busulfan (15 mg/kg) with two weeks interval. Rats were divided into (i) donor group [source of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) that were labelled and transfected with green fluorescent protein (GFP)] and (ii) experimental groups that were subdivided into: GpI (control), GpII (spermatogenic arrest model), GpIII (untreated rats), and GpIV (BM-MSCs treated rats). Estimation of the testicular weight, sperm count and motility % were performed. Histological and immunohistochemical staining for inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and caspase-3 (Cas-3) were conducted. Besides, the level of the testicular malondialdehyde (MDA), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and testicular testosterone were estimated by ELISA.

RESULTS

Oligospermic rats illustrated hypospermatogenesis of the seminiferous tubule with spermatocyte and spermatid arrest, focal thickening of the basement membrane and significant increase in germ cells apoptosis and testicular oxidative stress. Compared with the control, MDA and TNF-α were markedly elevated with marked suppression of the testicular testosterone. Intra-testicular injection of BM-MSCs substantially ameliorated these changes and effectively improved the sperm count and motility %.

CONCLUSIONS

BM-MSCs improved the induced-spermatogenic arrest in the rat model mainly through anti-apoptotic and antioxidant paracrine effects.

The Anti-fibrotic and Anti-inflammatory Potential of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Nintedanib in Bleomycin-Induced Lung Fibrosis in Rats

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic lung disease characterized by progressive lung damage. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are approved to treat people with IPF while bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy was previously suggested to inhibit pulmonary fibrosis through the alveolar epithelial cell repair. The present study aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effect of the bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (BM-MSC) therapy in comparison with nintedanib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, on improving survival in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis in rats. Moreover, the combined therapy of BM-MSCs and nintedanib will be evaluated. In the present study, IPF was induced through intra-tracheal instillation of bleomycin (5 mg/kg) in rats then treatments were administered 14 days thereafter. Nintedanib (100 mg/kg, I.P.) was administered daily for 28 days, while BM-MSCs were injected once intravenously in tail vein in the dose 1 × 10⁶ cells/ml/rat. In the present study, both treatment regimens effectively inhibited lung fibrosis through several pathways, suppressing tumor growth factor-β (TGF-β)/SMAD3 expression which is considered the master signaling pathway. Nintedanib and BLM-MSCs exerted their anti-inflammatory effect through minimizing the expression of TNF-α and IL-6. In addition, the histopathological examination of the lung tissue showed a significant decrease in the alveolar wall thickening, in the inflammatory infiltrate, and in the collagen fiber deposition in response to either nintedanib or BM-MSC and their combination. In conclusion, the therapeutic pulmonary anti-fibrotic activity of nintedanib or BM-MSC is mediated through their anti-inflammatory properties and inhibition of SMAD-3/TGF-β expression.

Mesenchymal stem cells therapeutic potential alleviate lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury in rat model

Inhalation of bacterial endotoxin induces an acute inflammation in the lower respiratory tract. The current study examined the therapeutic effects of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pulmonary congestion in rats as compared with dexamethasone (Dexa) and sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃ ). LPS (20 µL of LPS of Escherichia coli in each nostril for two consecutive days) induced lung injury as marked by an elevation of number of inflammatory cells especially neutrophils, increased total protein levels, elevation of lipid peroxidation, and reduction of reduced glutathione in bronchoalveolar lavage along with the reduction of reduced glutathione. These deleterious effects were hampered after treatment with BM-MSCs (1 × 10⁶  cells/rat) once before acute lung injury (ALI) induction with LPS to an even better extent than Dexa (2 mg/kg once, ip) and NaHCO₃ (10-15 mL/day for two consecutive days). In summary, BM-MSCs have the ability to suppress the endotoxin-induced systemic inflammatory response and could prove to be a novel approach to therapy for ALI in rats.