• preconditioning of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells with stromal cells -derived factor 1α and its application in animal model of type 1 diabetes
  • Mohammad Sadegh Gholami Farashah,1,*
    1. Department of Biology and Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran


  • Introduction: Stem cell homing to damaged tissues is among a number of main barriers to stem cell therapy. The current study is conducted to investigate whether preconditioning umbilical cord mesenchymal stem Cells (UCMSCs) with stromal cells -derived factor 1α (SDF-1α) could enhance their homing to the pancreas in type 1 diabetes or not.
  • Methods: Twelve male wistar rats were used. Type 1 diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 50 mg/kg of streptozotocin (STZ). The UCMSCs were extracted by mechanical method and their identification was performed by flow cytometry for CD73+, CD90+, CD34- and CD45- factors. After UCMSCs pretreatment with SDF-1, cell viability was checked with MTT test. On 10 days after STZ injection, UCMSCs, and UCMSCs +SDF1α at a dose of 1×106 cells were injected intravenously. 48 hours post-transplantation, the samples were taken from their pancreas, liver, lung, and spleen tissue and finally UCMSCs homing were tested by flow cytometry and fluorescent microscope.
  • Results: Spindle morphology and high expression of CD73 and CD90 were observed while CD34 and CD45expression did not happen. SDF-1 cell pretreatment increased (P<0.01) UCMSCs survival. UCMSCs+SDF-1α had a higher ability (P<0.001) of homing into the pancreas when compared to the UCMSCs group. Also, homing in non-target tissues decreased by SDF-1α preconditioning.
  • Conclusion: The present findings showed that SDF-1α preconditioning caused a significant increase in UCMSCs survival and homing into the pancreas.
  • Keywords: Type 1 diabetes, Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, stromal cells -derived factor 1α, Homing