Studing the effect of Thymoquinone on the expression of iNos and Cox-1 genes in mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Thymoquinone (TQ) is an active compound of some medicinal plants. Although different biological and pharmaceutical activities of TQ are well known, its effect on stem cells has not been clarified yet. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of TQ on the expression of iNos and Cox-1 genes, which are involved in immunomodulatory potential of mouse mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), at transcript level. MSCs were isolated from young NMRI mice and their potency was confirmed using the differentiation assay into osteoblasts and adipocytes. The results of MTT assay indicated that the median inhibition concentration (IC50) values of TQ on the MSCs were 8 μg/ml at 24h and 4 μg/ml at 48 and 72h after treatment. In addition, more than 90% of TQ-treated MSCs were alive after treatment with concentrations ≤2 μg/ml of TQ for 24h. The results of gene expression analysis by real-time PCR showed that iNos and Cox-1 down-regulated 0.655 and 0.615 fold (38.5 and 34.5%), respectively, in the TQ-treated MSCs compared to the untreated MSCs (P < 0.05). In conclusion, this study demonstrates that TQ influences immunomodulatory potential of MSCs. Furthermore, this study provides a good perspective for further efforts in the field and for the use of this compound to affect MSCs capabilities in cell therapy.