The effect of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro colon cancer cell lines

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are special group of stem cells due to their self-renewal, plastic adherent and multipotency. MSCs are obtained from many tissues, and MSCs obtained from cord-derived tissues have the advantage of being non-invasive. There are lots of researches on the use of MSCs mainly in the field of regenerative medicine and also in cancer therapies. The treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), which is the third in the world, is quite challenging for both the patient and the physicians. In our study, it is aimed to examine the therapeutic effect of MSCs on CRC cells (CRCc). The aim of our study was to examine the apoptotic effect of cord blood (CC-MSC) and cord tissue Wharton's jelly-derived-MSCs (WJ-MSCs) in HT-29 and HCT-116 cells. The apoptotic effect of MSC on CRCc was investigated as in vitro during 24 and 72 hour with 1/5 and 1/10 (MSC:Cancer) ratios. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were used as a control group. After incubations, Annexin/PI-FITC-based flow cytometry was performed. In both CRCc for all rates, incubations, and MSC sources were found significant (p<0.05). Additionally, caspase-3 and HTRA2/Omi changes were analyzed by ELISA. In both cell lines, the ratio of 1/5, for 24 hours was found to be significantly (p<0.05) higher than the WJ-MSC therapy. These data indicated that both WJ-MSC and CC-MSC could be a possible cell therapy for CRC. In addition, studies with ELISA provide information about the pathways in which apoptosis is induced by showing apoptotic protein changes in both mitotic and cytoplasm.