Chemokine receptor’s expression in human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells primed with valproic acid

Abstract

Among stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are ideal for practical regenerative medicine and among MSCs, adipose-derived (Ad)-MSCs are the best sources for this regard. Migration or homing to the injured tissue is the main property of MSCs which is related to chemokine receptors on their cell membrane and could be affected by some materials such as valproic acid (VPA). The present study investigated whether VPA could increase the expression of these receptors. In doing so, human Ad-MSCs were isolated from adipose tissue (AT), and after primary culture and characterization, the cells in passage four were primed with 5 mM of VPA for 24, 48, and 72 h. The cells that received no treatment were considered as control group. Then, expressions of chemokine receptors CCR1, CCR7, CX3CR, CXCR4, and CXCR6 were evaluated by PCR and semi-quantitative RT-PCR. GAPDH was considered as an internal control. All of studied chemokine receptors expressed in control group except CCR7 and CX3CR. The expression of CCR1 was low and no detectable increasing after priming with VPA could be seen, but CXCR4 and CXCR6 were significantly overexpressed. Also, the overexpression of these two receptors was time-dependent. We concluded that VPA treatment enhances homing of Ad-MSCs via overexpression of chemokine receptors in these cells, especially CXCR4 and CXCR6 as CXC group of these receptors and this expression is time-dependent, too.