Increased Migration of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells by Autocrine Motility Factor (AMF) Resulted in Enhanced Recruitment towards Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

BAYO, JUAN; FIORE, ESTEBAN; AQUINO, JORGE; MALVICINI MARIANA; RIZZO, MANGLIO; PEIXOTO, ESTANISLAO; ANDRIANI, OSCAR; ALANIZ, LAURA; PICCIONI, FLAVIA; BOLONTRADE, MARCELA; PODHAJCER, OSVALDO; GARCIA, MARIANA; MAZZOLINI, GUILLERMO

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2014 vol. 9

1932-6203

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Unfortunately, the incidence and mortality associated with HCC are increasing. Therefore, new therapeutic strategies are urgently needed and the use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) as carrier of therapeutic genes is emerging as a promising option. Different sources of MSCs are being studied for cell therapy and bone marrow-derived cells are the most extensively explored; however, birth associated-tissues represent a very promising source. The aim of this work was to compare the in vitro and in vivo migration capacity between bone marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs) and human umbilical cord perivascular cells (HUCPVCs) towards HCC. We observed that HUCPVCs presented higher in vitro and in vivo migration towards factors released by HCC. The expression of autocrine motility factor (AMF) receptor, genes related with the availability of the receptor on the cell surface (caveolin-1 and -2) and metalloproteinase 3, induced by the receptor activation and important for cell migration, was increased in HUCPVCs. The chemotactic response towards recombinant AMF was increased in HUCPVCs compared to BM-MSCs, and its inhibition in the conditioned medium from HCC induced higher decrease in HUCPVC migration than in BM-MSC. Our results indicate that HUCPVCs could be a useful cellular source to deliver therapeutic genes to HCC.