Experimental Study on Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Treatment of Acute Pancreatitis in Rats

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a rapid onset and disease progression, and approximately 15-20% of patients with AP may develop severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) which has the high mortality rate [1]. It is now generally accepted that the pathogenesis of AP start from the activation of pancreatin in pancreatic acinar cells and then induces both local and systemic inflammation [2]. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), C-reactive protein, interleukin (IL)-1, IL-8, IL-6, endothelin, nitric oxide (NO) and other inflammatory factors are thought to be involved in both the genesis and progression of AP. Inflammatory factors play a crucial role in the progression from slight acute pancreatitis to severe acute pancreatitis. Although efforts began to implement the appropriate method for the treatment of acute pancreatitis, mortality rate of SAP has not substantially decreased during the past two decades [3]. For this reason, adult stem cells especially mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been used in the experimental studies in the treatment of SAP. MSCs are multipotent adult stem cells that can be obtained from many different tissues shown to low or no immunogenicity. MSCs can differentiated into many cells types by providing the suitable microenvironment similar to in vivo [4,5]. Plenty of studies confirmed that MSCs are able to ameliorate pancreatic injury, inhibit systemic inflammation and promote tissue repair in AP [6,7]. Other studies revealed that MSCs could relieve pancreatitis-associated kidney damage [8,9] or pancreatitis-associated lung injury [10,11]. Unfortunately, these studies did not highlight the appropriate way for the stem cells infuse in vivo. To refine these approaches, we transplanted bmMSCs through tail vein, intraperitoneal and tail vein combined with intraperitoneal respectly and then position of bmMSCs, compared pancrearic injury and inflammatory response.