Abstract. The ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to migrate is an important determinant of the efficiency of MSC transplant therapy. MicroRNA-10b (miR-10b) has been positively involved in the migration of a number of tumor cells lineages. To date, it remains unknown whether miR-10b affects the migration of MSCs. In the current study, the effect of miR-10b on the migration of mouse bone marrowderived MSCs (bmMSCs) was investigated. Third-passage bmMSCs were transfected with miR-10b mimic and negative control precursor miRNA using Lipofectamine™ 2000. miR-10b and E-cadherin expression and bmMSC migration were determined. The present results showed that primary bmMSCs exhibit a spindled or triangular morphology and that third-passage bmMSCs present a typical fibroblast-like morphology, exhibiting CD90-positive and CD45-negative expression. Compared with the transfection of negative control miRNA, transfection of miR-10b mimic markedly upregulated miR-10b expression in bmMSCs, increased their migration and downregulated E-cadherin expression. The current observations indicate that the upregulation of miR-10b increases bmMSC migration ability, which may be involved in the downregulation of E-cadherin.
IntroductionMesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that may differentiate into a variety of cell lineages, including osteocytes, adipocytes, chondrocytes, endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes and neurons, when exposed to appropriate conditions (1,2). Bone marrow-derived MSCs (bmMSCs) are a commonly used source of stem cells. To date, bmMSCs have been widely applied in tissue engineering. The migration capability of bmMSCs is an important determinant of the efficiency of bmMSC-based transplant therapy. A previous study showed that ~1.5% of injected stem cells reached the injured tissue following intracoronary injection for 2 h (3). However, the low homing rate of bmMSCs severely limits their clinical uses.MicroRNAs (miRs) are endogenous, small, noncoding RNAs in eukaryotic cells (4). miRs are post-transcriptional regulators that negatively regulate gene expression by binding to the target mRNA for degradation and translational repression (4). At present, >1000 miRs have been identified in the human and mouse genomes, a number of which have been found to be involved in cell migration (4,5). It has been reported that miRs, including miR-let-7a, -16, -30a, -34a, -107, -125b, -200c, -203, -218, -424 and -488, inhibit the migration of specific tumor cells and other normal cell lineages (5-14). However, other miRs, including miR-10b, -20, -21 and -144, have been reported to promote cell migration (15)(16)(17)(18).To date, the effects of miR-10b on the migration and invasion of tumor cells have been well studied (15,19,20). However, little is known about the function of miR-10b in the migration of bmMSCs. In the present study, the role of miR-10b in bmMSC migration and E-cadherin expression was investigated.
Materials and methodsIsolation and culture of bmMSCs. bmMSCs were isolated and cultured as previously de...