Influence of simvastatin on the biological behavior of nucleus pulposus-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 aDepartment of Orthopaedics, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011,China

2 Department of Orthopaedics, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191,China

3 Departmentof Orthopedics, Clinical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, China

Abstract

Objective(s): This research is to study the influences of different concentrations of simvastatin on the biological activities of nucleus pulposus-derived mesenchymal stem cells (NPMSC).
Materials and Methods: NPMSC were cultured with different concentrations of simvastatin (0, 0.01, 0.1, and 1 μM) and assessed to determine the possible effects of simvastatin. The cell proliferation was assessed with CCK-8 assay. The flowcytometry and multilineage differentiation were also performed to identify the stem characterization of the cells. The mRNA expressions of aggrecan, collagen type II, glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) were determined by qRT-PCR.
Results: The results demonstrated that the cells isolated from nucleus pulposus of healthy Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat met the criteria of MSC. NPMSC could form sunflower-like colonies and strongly expressed stem cell-related genes. In addition, NPMSC showed strong ability of chondrogenic, adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation. Simvastatin at certain range concentrations (0.01 μM-0.1 μM)) significantly promoted colony-forming rate and cell proliferation, and inhibited cell apoptosis. Simvastatin could promote expressions of aggrecan, collagen type II, HIF-1α, VEGF and GLUT-1, while 0.1 μmol/l concentration reached the maximum effect. Our study further demonstrated that HIF-1α-intermediated signaling pathway might participate in regulating the biological activities of NPMSC.
Conclusion: Proper concentration of simvastatin can promote the biological behavior of NPMSC, and HIF-1α-intermediated signaling pathway might participate in the mechanism.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences
Volume 22, Issue 12
December 2019
Pages 1468-1475

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