Mesenchymal stem cells overexpressing hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 alpha alleviate liver injury by modulating anti-inflammatory functions in mice

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can migrate to tissue injury sites where they can induce multipotential differentiation and anti-inflammation effects to treat tissue injury. When traditional therapeutic methods do not work, MSCs are considered to be one of the best candidates for cell therapy. MSCs have been used for treating several injury- and inflammation-associated diseases, including liver cirrhosis. However, the therapeutic effect of MSCs is limited. In some cases, the anti-inflammatory function of naïve MSCs is not enough to rescue tissue injury. METHODS: Carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) was used to establish a mouse liver cirrhosis model. Enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) and hepatocyte nuclear factor-4α (HNF-4α) overexpression adenoviruses were used to modify MSCs. Three weeks after liver injury induction, mice were injected with bone marrow MSCs via their tail vein. The mice were then sacrificed 3 weeks after MSC injection. Liver injury was evaluated by measuring glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (ALT) and glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (AST) levels. Histological and molecular evaluations were performed to study the mechanisms. RESULTS: We found that HNF-4α-overexpressing MSCs had a better treatment effect than unmodified MSCs on liver cirrhosis. In the CCl(4)-induced mouse liver injury model, we found that HNF-4α-MSCs reduced inflammation in the liver and alleviated liver injury. In addition, we found that HNF-4α promoted the anti-inflammatory effect of MSCs by enhancing nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression, which was dependent on the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signalling pathway. CONCLUSIONS: MSCs overexpressing HNF-4α exerted good therapeutic effects against mouse liver cirrhosis due to an enhanced anti-inflammatory effect. Gene modification is likely a promising method for improving the effects of cell therapy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13287-019-1260-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.