[Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells express multiple hematopoietic growth factors]

To study the biological role of human cultured bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BM-MSC) in hematopoiesis by investigation of its expression of multiple hematopoietic growth factors, RT-PCR was used to analyze the expression of SCF, Flt3-ligand, TPO, LIF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-3, IL-6 and IL-11 at mRNA level for human BM-MSC from healthy donors and patients with leukemia and lymphoma. BM-MSC were incubated with or without hydrocortison (HC). The results clearly showed that the cultured BM-MSC expressed mRNA of SCF, Flt3-ligand, TPO, LIF, IL-6 and IL-11 at passages 3 up to 15, but did not express G-CSF, GM-CSF and IL-3. The same expression pattern of above cytokines was seen also for the patient's BM-MSC. HC was able to induce BM-MSC to express G-CSF but not to express GM-CSF. BM-MSC seemed not to change morphologically after incubation with HC for up to 21 days. In conclusion, both normal and patient BM-MSC should be potential to promote hematopoiesis according to their expression of multiple hematopoietic cytokines, and HC is able to induce hematopoietic growth factor expression.