Gravity, a regulation factor in the differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.
BACKGROUND
Stem cell therapy has emerged as a potential therapeutic option for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, but many issues remain to be resolved, such as the amount of seed cells, committed differentiation and the efficiency. Several previous studies have focused on the study of chemical inducement microenvironments. In the present study, we investigated the effects of gravity on the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) into force-sensitive or force-insensitive cells.


RESULTS
Rat BMSCs (rBMSCs) were cultured under hypergravity or simulated microgravity (SMG) conditions with or without inducement medium. The expression levels of the characteristic proteins were measured and analyzed using immunocytochemical, RT-PCR and Western-blot analyses. After treatment with 5-azacytidine and hypergravity, rBMSCs expressed more characteristic proteins of cardiomyocytes such as cTnT, GATA4 and beta-MHC; however, fewer such proteins were seen with SMG. After treating rBMSCs with osteogenic inducer and hypergravity, there were marked increases in the expression levels of ColIA1, Cbfa1 and ALP. Reverse results were obtained with SMG. rBMSCs treated with adipogenic inducer and SMG expressed greater levels of PPARgamma. Greater levels of Cbfa1- or cTnT-positive cells were observed under hypergravity without inducer, as shown by FACS analysis. These results indicate that hypergravity induces differentiation of rBMSCs into force-sensitive cells (cardiomyocytes and osteoblasts), whereas SMG induces force-insensitive cells (adipocytes).


CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, we conclude that gravity is an important factor affecting the differentiation of rBMSCs; this provides a new avenue for mechanistic studies of stem cell differentiation and a new approach to obtain more committed differentiated or undifferentiated cells.
Huang
Yan
Y
State Key Laboratory of Space medicine Fundamentation and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beiqing Road, No,26, Beijing, China. huangyan@be.buaa.edu.cn
Dai
Zhong-Quan
ZQ
Ling
Shu-Kuan
SK
Zhang
Hong-Yu
HY
Wan
Yu-Min
YM
Li
Ying-Hui
YH
D017667:Adipocytes / Q000166:cytology; D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006112:Gravitation; D018471:Hypergravity; D018472:Hypogravity; D008297:Male; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D019950:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1 / Q000378:metabolism; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000166:cytology; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D051381:Rats; D015398:Signal Transduction
D003470:Culture Media; D019950:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1; D048052:Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3