Comparison of the therapeutic effectiveness of human CD34 and rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on improvement of experimental liver fibrosis in Wistar rats.

Background And Objective: Human umbilical cord blood (UCB) cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have numerous advantages as grafts for cell transplantation. We hypothesized differing impacts of human UCB cells and rat BM-MSCs on reversal of hepatic injury and revival of liver function in carbon tetrachloride (CCl)-induced liver fibrosis.

Methods: Forty rats were divided into 4 groups; control group, CCl group, CCl/CD34 group and CCl/BM-MSCs group. Blood samples were driven from rats at 4, 8 and 12 weeks to measure serum concentration of albumin and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Quantitative expression of collagen Iα, TGF-β, α-SMA, albumin, MMP-2, MMP-9 and TNF-α were assessed by polymerase chain reaction. Histopathological examination of the liver tissue was performed. GFP labeled cells were detected in groups injected with stem cells.

Results: Regarding liver function, CD34 were more efficient than BM-MSCs in elevating albumin (<0.05) and reducing ALT (<0.05) concentrations. Concerning gene expression, CD34 were more effective than BM-MSCs in reducing gene expressions of collagen Iα (<0.01), TGF-β1 (<0.01) and α-SMA (<0.01). Both CD34 and BM-MSCs have the same efficacy in reducing TNF-α (<0.001 and <0.01, respectively). Furthermore, CD34 were more valuable than BM-MSCs in increasing gene expression of albumin (<0.05) and MMP-9 (<0.01).

Conclusion: Taken together; human UCB CD34 stem cells were more efficient in improvement of experimental liver injury than BM-MSCs. This study highlighted an important role of human UCB CD34 stem cells in liver fibrosis therapy.