Microvesicles Derived from Human Umbilical Cord Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells Attenuate Bladder Tumor Cell Growth In Vitro and In Vivo

Several studies suggest that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess antitumor properties; however, the exact mechanisms remain unclear. Recently, microvesicles (MVs) are considered as a novel avenue intercellular communication, which may be a mediator in MSCs-related antitumor effect. In the present study, we evaluated whether MVs derived from human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells (hWJMSCs) may inhibit bladder tumor T24 cells growth using cell culture and the BALB/c nu/nu mice xenograft model. CCK-8 assay and Ki-67 immunostaining were performed to estimate cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Flow cytometry and TUNEL assay were used to assess cell cycle and apoptosis. To study the conceivable mechanism by which hWJMSC-MVs attenuate bladder tumor T24 cells, we estimated the expression of Akt/p-Akt, p-p53, p21 and cleaved Caspase 3 by Western blot technique after exposing T24 cells to hWJMSC-MVs for 24, 48 and 72h. Our data indicated that hWJMSC-MVs can inhibit T24 cells proliferative viability via cell cycle arrest and induce apoptosis in T24 cells in vitro and in vivo. This study showed that hWJMSC-MVs down-regulated phosphorylation of Akt protein kinase and up-regulated cleaved Caspase 3 during the process of anti-proliferation and pro-apoptosis in T24 cells. These results demonstrate that hWJMSC-MVs play a vital role in hWJMSC-induced antitumor effect and may be a novel tool for cancer therapy as a new mechanism of cell-to-cell communication.