Promoting angiogenesis by con-transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells transfected with vascular endothelial growth factor 165 gene / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: How to promote the early vascularization of large tissue-engineered bone has become the hotspot of current research. Cell co-culture and the addition of bioactive factors to promote angiogenesis are very good methods to promote early vascularization. OBJECTIVE: To explore the ability of angiogenesis by co-transplantation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVECs)which were transfected with vascular endothelial growth factor 165(VEGF165)gene in vivo,to move forward a single step to offer theoretical basis and experimental basis to build vascularized tissue-engineered bone which can be used to repair large segmental bone defects. METHODS: We built an ischemic skin flap with 4 cm×1.5 cm in the back of Sprague-Dawley rats, and then BMSCs+VEGF165-transfected HUVECs (group A), VEGF165-transfected HUVECs (group B), BMSCs+non-transfected HUVECs (group C), non-transfected HUVECs (group D), DMEM (group E) were respectively transplanted. ELISA method was used to detect peripheral blood VEGF level. Histologically, survival and microvessel density of the flap were observed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The flap survival quality of group A was better than that in the other groups. VEGF exhibited high expression continuously high expression at 2, 4, 7, 14 days after transplantation, and reached the peak at 7 days, but the expression level at 14 days was obviously lower than that at 2 days postoperatively. The VEGF level of group always exceeded that in group B at different time points (P < 0.05). The flap survival rate and microvessel density of group A was significantly higher than that in the other groups at 11 days postoperatively (both P < 0.05). In summary, co-transplantation of BMSCs and VEGF165-transfected HUVECs can promote survival of an ischemic flap in vivo through pro-angiogenic actions.