Frequent injections of high‑dose human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells slightly aggravate arthritis and skeletal muscle cachexia in collagen‑induced arthritic mice

作者：Lemei An, Tianshu Chu, Liujun Wang, Songtao An, Yalong Li, Hongbo Hao, Zhuoli Zhang, Han Yue · 发表于：Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.3892/etm.2021.10707 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Mesenchymal stem cell research、Bone and Joint Diseases、Cerebral Palsy and Movement Disorders

A single injection of low‑dose human umbilical cord‑derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC‑MSCs) has been previously demonstrated to relieve synovitis and bone erosion in animal models of arthritis, but whether frequent injections of high‑dose UC‑MSCs relieve arthritis and inhibit loss of muscle mass has remained elusive. In the present study, DBA/1 mice were randomly divided into three groups: Normal (wild‑type mice; n=11), collagen‑induced arthritis (CIA; n=12) and CIA treated with UC‑MSCs (n=11; 5x10 6 UC‑MSCs per week for 3 weeks). Arthritis and skeletal muscle cachexia were evaluated until the end of the experiment on day 84. It was indicated that both the CIA and UC‑MSC groups had lower body weights compared with the normal mice. Clinical arthritis scores, hind ankle diameters, synovitis and bone erosion progressively increased and were similar between the CIA and UC‑MSC groups. Although there was no difference in food intake among the three groups, the normalized food intake of normal group was significantly higher than CIA group and UC‑MSC group from day 42 onwards; there was no significance on day 77 but this could be neglected. Furthermore, gastrocnemius muscle weight in the UC‑MSC group was significantly reduced compared with that in the CIA and normal groups. The UC‑MSC group had higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF‑α, IL‑6 and IL‑1β than those in the CIA group. However, the other cytokines assessed and the fibrosis indices in the CIA and UC‑MSC gr...