Immunomodulatory Effect of Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Lines (HepG2)

Background: Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs), one type of adult stem cells, have gained considerable interest as extremely promising cell therapeutic agents due to their unique combination of immunomodulatory properties, self-renewal and multilineage differentiation capacity. MSCs are also known for their anti-tumor effect. Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality, responsible for about 600,000 worldwide deaths annually.Purpose: The present work is intended to study the immunomodulatory effect of mesenchymal stem cells on malignant cell lines derived from HCC patients and elucidation of MSCs potential therapeutic effects.Material and Methods: This study included umbilical cord blood derived-MSCs and HepG2 cell lines, MSCs derived from five samples of human Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) collected immediately after labour from full-term pregnant women with no comorbidities. MSCs derived from UCB have been characterized using monoclonal antibodies (CD34 and CD105) by flow cytometry, then coculture between MSCs and HepG2 cell lines for 7 days with measurement of secreted IL-10 level at days 1, 3 and 7 was conducted.Results: A statistically significant difference regarding IL-10 level was found between day 1 (D1) and day 3 (D3) in coculture of MSCs: HepG2 at ratios (1: 1, 5: 1) with p-value: 0.018 and 0.014 respectively, while not statistically significant at (3: 1) ratio and D7.Conclusion: Our study delineates a possible beneficial effect of hMSCs conditioned media on malignant liver cells via the secretion of IL-10 immunomodulatory cytokine.