Inhibition of lung cancer cell proliferation mediated by human mesenchymal stem cells

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are mostly studied for their potential clinical use. Recently, much attention in the field of cancer research has been paid to hMSCs. In this study, we investigated the influence of hMSCs on the proliferation of lung cancer cell lines SK-MES-1 and A549 in vitro and in vivo by using a co-culture system and the hMSCs-conditioned medium. Our results demonstrated that hMSCs could inhibit the proliferation of SK-MES-1 and A549 cells, and induce the apoptosis of tumor cells in vitro via some soluble factors. Animal study showed that these soluble factors from hMSCs could suppress tumorigenesis and tumor angiogenesis by treating preliminarily tumor cells with the hMSCs-conditioned medium. The downregulated expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in tumor cells might be the mechanism of interference in tumor angiogenesis, which was verified by western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry assay. Taken together, our results suggested that the hMSCs could inhibit tumor cell growth by secreting some soluble factors.