Rat induced pluripotent stem cells protect H9C2 cells from cellular senescence via a paracrine mechanism

Cellular senescence may play an important role in the pathology of heart aging. We aimed to explore whether induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) could inhibit cardiac cellular senescence via a paracrine mechanism.

We collected iPSC culture supernatant, with or without oxidative stress, as conditioned medium (CM) for the rat cardiomyocyte-derived cell line H9C2. Then we treated H9C2 cells, cultured with or without CM, with hypoxia/reoxygenation to induce cellular senescence and measured senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) activity, G1 cell proportion and expression of the cell cycle regulators p16(INK4a), p21(Waf1/Cip1) and p53 at mRNA and protein levels in H9C2 cells. In addition, we used Luminex-based analysis to measure concentrations of trophic factors in iPSC-derived CM.

We found that iPSC-derived CM reduced SA-β-gal activity, attenuated G1 cell cycle arrest and reduced the expression of p16(INK4a), p21(Waf1/Cip1) and p53 in H9C2 cells. Furthermore, the CM contained more trophic factors, e.g. tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor, than H9C2-derived CM.

Paracrine factors released from iPSCs prevent stress-induced senescence of H9C2 cells by inhibiting p53-p21 and p16-pRb pathways. This is the first report demonstrating that antisenescence effects of stem cell therapy may be a novel therapeutic strategy for age-related cardiovascular disease.