Therapeutic effect of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in rats with hepatic fibrosis

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) transplantation on hepatic fibrosis. Methods: CCl4 was employed to induce Wistar rats to build a liver fibrosis model. The rats randomly fell to the normal control group (CCl4/saline 0 wk groups); Liver fibrosis model (CCl4/sline groups) 1, 2, 4 weeks group; MSCs transplantation (CCl4/MSCs groups) 0, 1, 2, 4 weeks group. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) was conducted for morphological evaluation and Masson trichrome (MT) to evaluate the inflammation and degree of fibrosis. In these rats, the levels of following liver function indexes were detected: (e.g., serum glutathione aminotransferase (ALT), glutathione aminotransferase (AST), albumin (ALB), total bilirubin (TBIL) and direct bilirubin (DBIL)), as well as oxidative stress indexes (e.g., malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione (GSH)). Results: hUC-MSCs transplantation was capable of enhancing liver function, elevating pathological inflammation score and improving fibrous tissue deposition in rats with liver fibrosis. After the hUC-MSCs transplantation was conducted, the expressions of SOD, GSH and GPX in liver tissues were noticeably up-regulated, and the expression of MDA was significantly down-regulated in all transplantation groups, except for the 1-week transplantation group, the mentioned results were not significantly different from those of the corresponding model group. Conclusion: hUC-MSCs transplantation is capable of improving liver fibrosis, but fails to reverse liver fibrosis, it can only decelerate the process of liver fibrosis.