DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2017.v05i10.006

Pages: 723-731

Haematological malignancies represent approximately 7% of all malignant diseases. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive and fatal disease. AML treatment basically remained unimproved in the last 20 years; it depends upon induction of cytotoxic chemotherapy. An average less than 30% of AML patients survive for long-term. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are currently being investigated for an ever-expanding number of clinical indications based on their tissue-regenerative, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory effects. The leukaemic inhibitory factor gene (LIF) induces the differentiation of AML cells and inhibits their growth, while the interleukin-10 (IL-10) might be an efficient inhibitor of tumour metastasis. Therefore, the present work aimed to detect the effect of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HUCB-MSCs) on the expression of the LIF and on IL-10 in AML-patients. The MSCs were separated from HUCB, and co-cultured with samples collected from peripheral blood (PB) of AML-insulted adults prior to chemotherapy. The expression of LIF gene and the IL-10 level were measured using the real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques, respectively before and after the co-culture in order to evaluate the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effect of the MSCs. The present study revealed that the group of AML cells co-cultured with HUCB-MSCs showed a significant increase in the expression level of LIF gene compared with the untreated group. The group of AML cells co-cultured with MSCs showed a significant decrease in the IL-10 concentration compared to that of the untreated group. Our data demonstrated that co-culture of AML with MSCs represents a simple approach to inhibit leukaemic cells in vitro.