Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells attenuate ischemia-reperfusion injury of rat renal tubular epithelial cells through expression of HGF

Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been proven to be effective in attenuation of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), which was related to the paracrine effects of MSCs. In this study, we used hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) siRNA to knock down the HGF expression of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs); Transwell chambers and 6-well plates were then used to build up non-contact co-culture systems of BM-MSCs and IRI NRK cells. Real-Time PCR and Western blot were used to determine the mRNA and protein expression of HGF, high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), respectively; MTT array was used to determine the proliferation rate of BM-MSCs and NRK cells. Our results showed that, on the one hand, co-culture with IRI NRK cells can significantly accelerate BM-MSCs proliferation and HGF expression when compared to BM-MSCs alone (P<0.05); On the other hand, IRI NRK cells proliferation and inflammatory factors expression were all improved by co-culture with both wild type BM-MSCs and BM-MSCs transfected with HGF siRNA when compared with IRI NRK cells alone (P<0.05); While the wild type BM-MSCs showed more capability in promoting IRI NRK cells proliferation and inhibiting inflammatory factors expression, which means that, the IRI protection role of BM-MSCs was partially resulted from HGF secretion.