Inhibition of cervical cancer cells by co-culturing with mesenchymal stem cells.

The effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on tumors remains controversial and requires further exploration. In this study, we isolated MSCs from umbilical cord (UC) and co-cultured with cervical cancer HeLa cells. Flow cytometry was conducted to detect apoptosis and cell cycle. CCK8 and Matrigel-transwell were performed to assay cell proliferation and invasion ability, respectively. Our results indicated that UCMSCs inhibited proliferation of HeLa cells 72 hours post co-culture but had no obvious effect on apoptosis and cell cycle. UCMSCs dramatically suppressed invasion of HeLa cells in transwell detection. In mechanism study, we found that UCMSCs could inhibit expression of AKT/PI3K/STAT3/mTOR pathway and influence epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. Our study clearly confirms that UCMSCs could inhibit biological functions of cervical cancer cells.