Adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells partially rescue mitomycin C treated ARPE19 cells from death in co-culture condition

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration is a retinal disease with important damage at the RPE layer. This layer is considered a target for therapeutical approaches. Stem cell transplantation is a promising option for retinal diseases. Adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells secret growth factors which might play a significant role in RPE maintenance. This study aimed to evaluate human AD-MSCs ability to rescue mitomycin C treated dying ARPE19 cells in co-culture condition. ARPE19 cells were treated with MMC (50 µg/ml, 100 µg/ml and 200 µg/ml) for 2 hours to induce cell death. These treated cells were co-cultured with hADMSCs in indirect co-culture system for 3 days and 3 weeks. Then the viability, growth and proliferation of these ARPE19 cells were evaluated by a cell viability/cytotoxicity assay kit and Alamar Blue (AB) assay. Untreated ARPE19 cells and human skin fibroblasts (HSF) were used as controls. MMC blocked ARPE19 cell proliferation significantly in 3 days and cells were almost completely dead after 3 weeks. Cell toxicity of MMC increased significantly with concentration. When these cells were co-cultured with hAD-MSCs, a significant growth difference was observed in treated cells compared to untreated cells. hAD-MSCs rescue capacity was also significantly higher than HSF for treated ARPE19 cells. This study showed that hAD-MSCs rescued MMC treated ARPE19 cells from death. It probably occurred due to undefined growth factors secreted by hAD-MSCs in the medium, shared by treated ARPE19 cells in coculture conditions. This study supports further evaluation of the effect of hAD-MSCs subretinal transplantation over the RPE degeneration process in AMD patients.