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Behavioral Changes in Stem-Cell Potency by HepG2-Exhausted Medium

2020; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 9; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/cells9081890

2073-4409

Francesca Balzano, Giuseppe Garroni, Sara Cruciani, Emanuela Bellu, Silvia Dei Giudici, Annalisa Oggiano, Giampiero Capobianco, Salvatore Dessole, Carlo Ventura, Margherita Maioli,

Epigenetics and DNA Methylation

Wharton jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs) are able to differentiate into different cell lineages upon stimulation. This ability is closely related to the perfect balance between the pluripotency-related genes, which control stem-cell proliferation, and genes able to orchestrate the appearance of a specific phenotype. Here we studied the expression of stemness-related genes, epigenetic regulators (DNMT1, SIRT1), miRNAs (miR-145, miR-148, and miR-185) related to stemness, exosomes, the cell-cycle regulators p21 (WAF1/CIP1) and p53, and the senescence-associated genes (p16, p19, and hTERT). Cells were cultured in the presence or absence of the human hepatocarcinoma cell line HepG2-exhausted medium, to evaluate changes in stemness, differentiation capability, and senescence sensibility. Our results showed the overexpression of SIRT1 and reduced levels of p21 mRNA. Moreover, we observed a downregulation of DNMT1, and a simultaneous overexpression of Oct-4 and c-Myc. These findings suggest that WJ-MSCs are more likely to retain a stem phenotype and sometimes to switch to a highly undifferentiable proliferative-like behavior if treated with medium exhausted by human HepG2 cell lines.