Preconditioning with SDF-1 Improves Therapeutic Outcomes of Bone marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in a Mouse Model of STZ-induced Diabetes

Background: Nowadays, transplantation of Bone marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (BMSCs) is currently an important alternative therapy for patient’s type 1 diabetes mellitus. But a number of critical obstacles lie ahead of this new strategy in- cluding reducing stem cell homing to the damaged tissue due to oxidative stress. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether preconditioning of BMSCs with SDF-1 could enhance their homing to the pancreas and promote regeneration of the pancreatic β cells after being intravenously injected. Methods: Mice BMSCs were isolated and expanded. Cell proliferation was assayed by MTT Assay. Preconditioning was performed with 10 ng/ml SDF-1α for 24 hr. Male NMRI mice were injected with highdose STZ (150 mg/kg). The preconditioned or unpreconditioned BMSCs at a dose of 1×106 cells were infused via the tail vein. Blood and pancreatic tissue samples were taken from all mice for flow cytometry, biochemical and histological studies. Results: Proliferation and homing of BMSCs to the pancreas were significantly increased in the BMSCs with SDF-1α preconditioning. Differentiation of transplanted BMSCs, were significantly increased in preconditioning group. Although BMSCs with- out SDF-1 preconditioning exhibited remarkable recovery of pancreatic islets structure but this recovery were significantly increased in the BMSCs with SDF-1α precondition- ing. Conclusion: Our results showed the effectiveness of SDF-1αpreconditioning in BMSCs transplantation of STZ induced diabetes mice which might be achieved through improvement of BMSCs homing into the injured pancreas.