ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Cadmium an environmental pollutant, exert several risks to human health. In this study we investigated the effect of cadmium chloride (CdCl 2 ) on Viability, morphology and bone Matrix Miniralization of Rat Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells (rMSCs). Materials and Methods: rMSCs were cultured in DMEM containing 15% FBS and pen-strep. After 21 days of treatment with the selected doses of 750 and 2000 nM of CdCl 2 viability, colony forming unit, population doubling number, DAN breakage and the morphology of the cells were studied. Also to study the effects of CdCl2 on differentiation property, the morphology and bone matrix mineralization via estimation of intracellular calcium concentration and quantitative alizarin red were also evaluated in the cells using Hoechst, Acridine orange and Alizarin red staining. Data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey ' s test and the means difference was considered significant at P<0.05. Results: The mean viability, colony forming unit, population doubling number and also the mean bone matrix mineralization of the rMSCs treated with CdCl 2 significantly reduced in a dose dependent manner. Nuclear fragmentation and cytoplasm shrinkage was also seen in the treated cells. Conclusion: CdCl 2 can reduce the viability and bone matrix mineralization of rMSCs even at low doses.