Obstructive apneas induce early activation of mesenchymal stem cells and enhancement of endothelial wound healing.
BACKGROUND
The aim was to test the hypothesis that the blood serum of rats subjected to recurrent airway obstructions mimicking obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) induces early activation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and enhancement of endothelial wound healing.


METHODS
We studied 30 control rats and 30 rats subjected to recurrent obstructive apneas (60 per hour, lasting 15 s each, for 5 h). The migration induced in MSC by apneic serum was measured by transwell assays. MSC-endothelial adhesion induced by apneic serum was assessed by incubating fluorescent-labelled MSC on monolayers of cultured endothelial cells from rat aorta. A wound healing assay was used to investigate the effect of apneic serum on endothelial repair.


RESULTS
Apneic serum showed significant increase in chemotaxis in MSC when compared with control serum: the normalized chemotaxis indices were 2.20 +/- 0.58 (m +/- SE) and 1.00 +/- 0.26, respectively (p < 0.05). MSC adhesion to endothelial cells was greater (1.75 +/- 0.14 -fold; p < 0.01) in apneic serum than in control serum. When compared with control serum, apneic serum significantly increased endothelial wound healing (2.01 +/- 0.24 -fold; p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The early increases induced by recurrent obstructive apneas in MSC migration, adhesion and endothelial repair suggest that these mechanisms play a role in the physiological response to the challenges associated to OSA.
Carreras
Alba
A
Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Barcelona-IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain.
Rojas
Mauricio
M
Tsapikouni
Theodora
T
Montserrat
Josep M
JM
Navajas
Daniel
D
Farré
Ramon
R
D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002633:Chemotaxis; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000097:blood*; D013997:Time Factors; D014945:Wound Healing