Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Oxygen is involved in the synthesis of ATP in cells for cellular metabolism, and the concentration of oxygen is also an important factor to control the physiological functions of cells. Physiological and pathological events of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells always occur under hypoxia condition, but the mechanism is still unclear.
OBJECTIVE: To overview the research progress of the biological effects of hypoxia on mesenchymal stem cells.
METHODS: A computer retrieval of PubMed database, Wanfang database, Weipu database and CNKI database (1997-01/2011-10) was conducted to search the related articles with the keywords of “mesenchymal stem cells, hypoxia, hypoxia-induced factor” in English and Chinese. A total of 1 120 articles were retrieved, and finally 48 articles were included in final analysis according to the inclusion criteria.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Hypoxia induction could reduce the apoptosis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells by upregulating the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and downregulating the expression of p53 apoptotic signaling. Hypoxia could increase the proliferation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells by inhibiting WNT signaling pathway and bone morphogenetic protein signaling pathway. Hypoxic tissue could induce the migration of mesenchymal stem cells to hypoxic region, the main signal pathways in this process include vascular endothelial growth factor signaling pathway, stromal cell-derived factor-1 signaling pathway and c-Met signaling pathway. Hypoxia could also increase the adhesion of mesenchymal stem cells mainly through the high expression of cytoskeletal proteins and cell-cell adhesion molecule. Hypoxia could promote cell differentiation by increasing the expression of angiopoietin-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor and other factors.