MTHFR C677T mutation affects adipogenic differentiation abilities of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

The effects of 5,10-Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism on human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) viability, morphology, physiology and differentiation capacity were investigated in this study. For this purpose, primary hBM-MSCs with wild type (WT, C/C), heterozygote (HTZ, C/T) and homozygote (HMZ, T/T) for the MTHFR gene were obtained with ethical committee permission and donor informed. Mutations were detected using RFLP and Sanger sequencing methods from genomic DNA isolated from cells, colonization properties were investigated by CFU-F test and proliferative differences were investigated by MTT test. Adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation were induced to study changes in their differentiation potentials, and the results were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Graphpad Prism. A total of 13 donors were screened and there were no differences in the hBM-MSC markers and in vitro morphologies of the cells. While there were significant differences between WT and HTZ as a result of the CFU-F test, there were no significant differences in the MTT test after 24 and 48 h. As a result of differentiation tests, it was found that adipogenic differentiation was significantly more in HMZ cells than WT cells. Osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation results did not give statistically significant results. As a result of these experiments, adipogenic differentiation was found to be affected by the MTHFR genotype in hBM-MSCs.

MicroRNA-499a-5p Promotes Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Cardiomyocytes.

Since the adult mammalian heart has limited regenerative capacity, cardiac trauma, disease, and aging cause permanent loss of contractile tissue. This has fueled the development of stem cell-based strategies to provide the damaged heart with new cardiomyocytes. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into cardiomyocytes, albeit inefficiently. MicroRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) are non-coding RNAs that have the potential to control stem cell fate decisions and are employed in cardiac regeneration and repair. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that overexpression of miR-499a induces cardiomyogenic differentiation in BM-MSCs. Human BM-MSCs (hBM-MSCs) were transduced with lentiviral vectors encoding miR-499a-3p or miR-499a-5p and analyzed by immunostaining and western blotting methods 14 days post-transduction. MiR-499a-5p-transduced cells adopted a polygonal/rod-shaped (myocyte-like) phenotype and showed an increase in the expression of the cardiomyocyte markers α-actinin and cTnI, as cardiogenic differentiation markers. These results indicate that miR-499a-5p overexpression promotes the cardiomyogenic differentiation of hBM-MSCs and may thereby increase their therapeutic efficiency in cardiac regeneration.

Effect of human mesenchymal stem cell transplantation on cerebral ischemic volume-controlled photothrombotic mouse model.

Various animal models of stroke have been developed to simulate the human stroke with the development of the ischemic method facilitates preclinical stroke research. The photothrombotic ischemia model, based on the intravascular photochemical reaction, is widely used for in vivo studies. However, this study has limitations, which generated a relatively small-sized infarction model on superficial cortex compared to that of the MCAO stroke model. In this study, the photothorombosis mouse model is adapted and the optimum conditions for generation of cell death and deficits with high reproducibility is determined. The extent of damage within the cortex was assessed by infarct volume and cellular/behavioral analyses. In this model, the neural cell death and inflammatory responses is detected; moreover, the degree of behavioral impairment is correlated with the brain infarct volume. Further, to enhance the understanding of neural repair, the effect of neural differentiation by transplantation of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) is analyzed. The authors demonstrated that transplantation of BM-MSCs promoted the neural differentiation and behavioral performance in their photothrombosis model. Therefore, this research was meaningful to provide a stable animal model of stroke with low variability. Moreover, this model will facilitate development of novel MSC-based therapeutics for stroke.