The experimental study on tropism of magnetic labeled bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells for hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To label rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) and to explore the tropism of BMSCs for hepatocellular carcinoma cells after transplantation in vivo. Methods BMSCs from bone marrow of Sprague-Dawly (SD) rats were cultured isolated and purified, Labeled BMSCs was achieved using Feridex. Twenty-four hepatocellular carcinoma models of SD rats were induced two weeks before tmnsplantation. The models were divided into three groups in random: the labeled BMSCs and unlabeled BMSCs were transplanted respectively into the rat's livers of experimental group (n = 12) and control group A(n =6) via spleens, and no transplant was done for control group B (n =6). MR imaging was performed to monitor the transplanted cells after 1,3,7,14 d using 1.5 T MR system. Signal intensity ratio (SI/SI*) between tumor and hepatic tissue on T_2 * WI were measured and compared by one-factor analysis of variance. After MR imaging, Prussian blue staining was performed. MR imaging findings were compared with histological sections. Results Prussian blue staining confirmed the labeling efficiency of BMSCs was above 90%. SI/SI* of experimental group before and 1, 3, 7, 14 d after transplantation were 3.18±0.21,1.98±0.20,2.38±0.28,2.70±0.25 and 3.16±0.24 respectively. Following transplantation of BMSCs, signal intensity decrease was found in hepatocellular carcinoma of experimental group(F =56.65,P <0.05) and low signal change decreased gradually and disappeared at two weeks after transplantation, while no remarkable low signal change was seen in the control group by T_2 * WI (P > 0.05). A large number of Prussian blue staining positive cells were found in hepatocellular carcinoma in experimental group. Histological section with Prussian blue staining had a good correlation with the signal intensity changes on MR images at different time. Conclusion BMSCs display significant tropism to hepatocellular carcinoma and may be an ideal gene therapy vehicle against hepatocellular carcinoma.