Objective: To investigate the effect of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) on the migration of the induced and differentiated mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) for raising the efficacy of intravenous transplantation of BMSCs.
Methods: The BMSCs were cultured with the method of differential adhesion and density gradient centrifugation of C57/BL10 mice, and were identified by alkaline phosphatase Gomori modified staining after osteogenic inducing. At the 3rd passage, the BMSCs were induced to the myoblasts with 5-azacytidine (5-Aza). The chemotaxis of MCP-1 in the induced and differentiated BMSCs in vitro at concentrations of 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 ng/mL was observed through the migration test, by counting the number of the migrated cells. The expression of the chemokine receptor 2 (CKR-2) in the induced and differentiated BMSCs was detected with the flow cytometry.
Results: The cells could be cultured with the methods of differential adhesion and density gradient centrifugation and still had higher proliferative and differentiative potency; the induced cells at the 3rd passage could differentiate to the osteoblasts, confirming that the cells were BMSCs; the myogenic induced BMSCs possessed the sarcotubule structure. The number of the migrating BMSCs at MCP-1 concentrations of 25-400 ng/mL were respectively 35.066 7 +/- 6.584 2, 43.200 0 +/- 6.460 8, 44.466 7 +/- 4.823 5, 45.600 0 +/- 8.650 3, and 50.733 3 +/- 7.582 5; showing significant difference when compared with control group (28.333 3 +/- 8.917 6, P < 0.05), and presenting significant difference among 25, 50, 400 ng/mL groups compared with each other (P < 0.05). The expression of CKR-2 in the mouse BMSCs (48.0%) was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than those of blank control (0.6%) and negative control (17.0%).
Conclusion: The results indicate that the MCP-1 can induce the migration of mouse BMSCs by MCP-1/CKR-2 pathway.