Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Vascular endothelial cells can promote osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and provide nutritional support for growth and proliferation of BMSCs.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of human umbilical vein vascular endothelial cells (hUVECs) in a co-culture system on morphology, growth and differentiation of human BMSCs, and Bmi-1 gene expression in cells.
METHODS: Based on the co-culture system of cells, a simple culture group (hBMSCs group) and a combined culture group (BMSCs + hUVECs group) were established. On days 4, 6, 8, 10, cell morphology was observed and cells were counted for drawing cell growth curves; in addition, Bmi-1 gene expression in cells was detected in each group using real-time quantitative fluorescent PCR.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At each time point, compared with hBMSCs group, cells exhibited multiple morphological changes, some cells connected together in the latter stage, and osteogenic differentiation was more obvious in the BMSCs + hUVECs group. At each time point, cell number and Bmi-1 expression in the BMSCs + hUVECs group were significantly greater than in the BMSCs group. The BMSCs + hUVECs group showed a better compatibility compared with the hBMSCs group. These findings suggest that hUVECs promote the proliferation of hBMSCs in the co-culture system, and increase Bmi-1 expression in hBMSCs, thereby affecting aging and proliferative capacity of hBMSCs.