Xiao KZ, Liao G, Huang GY, Huang YL, Gu RH. Efficacy of serum-free cultured human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis in mice. World J Stem Cells 2024; 16(11): 944-955 [PMID: 39619871 DOI: 10.4252/wjsc.v16.i11.944]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Rong-He Gu, Doctor, Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 89 Qixing Road, Qingxiu District, Nanning 530022, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. 201920518@sr.gxmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Cell & Tissue Engineering
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Kai-Zhen Xiao, Gui Liao, Guang-Yu Huang, Yun-Long Huang, Rong-He Gu, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530022, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Kai-Zhen Xiao, Guang-Yu Huang, Yun-Long Huang, Graduate School of Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530022, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Rong-He Gu, Department of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Intelligent Medicine, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530022, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Co-first authors: Kai-Zhen Xiao and Gui Liao.
Author contributions: Xiao KZ and Gu RH designed the study; Xiao KZ, Liao G, Huang GY, and Huang YL performed the experiments, acquired and analyzed data; Xiao KZ and Liao G interpreted the data; Xiao KZ, Liao G, and Gu RH wrote the manuscript; Xiao KZ and Liao G contributed equally to this work; all authors approved the final version of the article.
Supported bythe Cultivated by Outstanding Young Scientific and Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talents in Nanning City, China, No. RC20210107; and Self-Funded Research Project by Guangxi Health Commission, China, No. Z20191090.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Animal Ethics Committee of Guangxi Medical University (IACUC protocol number: Protocol No. 201907878).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Corresponding author: Rong-He Gu, Doctor, Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 89 Qixing Road, Qingxiu District, Nanning 530022, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. 201920518@sr.gxmu.edu.cn
Received: April 22, 2024 Revised: September 3, 2024 Accepted: October 18, 2024 Published online: November 26, 2024 Processing time: 217 Days and 20.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
We investigated the efficacy of intra-articular injection of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) progression in the knee joint. Although many experimental studies of hUC-MSCs have been published, these studies have mainly used fetal bovine serum-containing cultures of hUC-MSCs; serum-free cultures generally avoid the shortcomings of serum-containing cultures and are not subject to ethical limitations, have a wide range of prospects for clinical application, and provide a basis or animal experimentation for clinical experiments.
AIM
To study the therapeutic effects of serum-free hUC-MSCs (N-hUCMSCs) in a mouse model of knee OA.
METHODS
Fifty-five male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into six groups: The blank control group, model control group, serum-containing hUC-MSCs (S-hUCMSC) group, N-hUCMSC group and hyaluronic acid (HA) group. After 9 weeks of modeling, the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-1 were determined. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to observe the cartilage tissue, and the Mankin score was determined. Immunohistochemistry and western blotting were used to determine the expression of collagen type II, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-13.
RESULTS
The Mankin score and serum IL-1 and IL-1β and cartilage tissue MMP-1 and MMP-13 expression were significantly greater in the experimental group than in the blank control group (P < 0.05). Collagen II expression in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the blank control group (P < 0.05). The Mankin score and serum IL-1 and IL-1β and cartilage tissue MMP-1 and MMP-13 levels the experimental group were lower than those in the model control group (P < 0.05). Collagen II expression in the experimental group was significantly greater than that in the model control group (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
N-hUCMSC treatment significantly alleviate the pathological damage caused by OA. The treatment effects of the S- hUCMSC group and HA group were similar.
Core Tip: Mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to alleviate osteoarthritic cartilage and could therefore be used to treat osteoarthritis to reduce or delay the need for knee replacement therapy. This study provides a favorable foundation for the future application of serum-free cultured human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells in clinical trials for treating knee osteoarthritis.
