Using the secretome of mesenchymal progenitors of the umbilical cord as a modulator of neural and glial survival, viability and differentiation

Although it is hypothesized that mesenchymal stem cells’ secretome
plays a major role in CNS regeneration, little is known on the mechanisms
that regulate these actions. In the present work we aimed to
assess if the secretome of a population of MSCs isolated from the WJ of
the UC (HUCPVCs) was able to modulate neural/glial survival differentiation
and proliferation in in vitro and in vivo models. Two approaches
were used: (1) primary cultures of neurons and glial cells, were incubated
with conditioned media (CM) from HUCPVCs and (2) HUCPVCs
or their CM were injected in the dentate gyrus of male Wistar rats. In
vitro results revealed that HUCPVCs CM increased cell proliferation in
neuronal and glial cells cultures, as well as the survival of astrocytes,
oligodendrocytes and neurons. In vivo experiments revealed that animals
injected with HUCPVCs, had an increased endogenous cell proliferation,
and disclosed higher levels of FGF-2, BDNF and NGF, as
indicated by qRT-PCR. On the other hand, in the animals injected with CM, the effect caused in the DG was more evident for astrocytes and
neuronal cell densities. The CM was also able to induce the differentiation
of resident neural precursor towards the neuronal lineages. With
this work it was possible to show that HUCPVCs secretome is able to
modulate in vitro and in vivo neural/glial cell survival proliferation and
differentiation, a fact that may facilitate the future applications of these
cells in future CNS related therapies.