Role of autophagy as a survival factor in MSCs following exposure to oxidative stress

Previous studies have showed that a large percentage of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) die in the early stages of transplantation due to oxidative streeses, hypoxia, and serum deprivation. Hence, this study was aimed to address whether induction or inhibition of autophagy would affect the viability of MSCs after exposure to oxidative stress. In this descriptive study, MSCs were isolated from bone marrow with ficol and density gradient method; the fourth passage MSCs were selected in the study. Autophagy was detected by using transfection of GFP-LC3 to MSCs. Induction and inhibition of autophagy were performed by using rapamycin and 3MA, respectively. MSCs were exposed to lethal doses of H2O2 followed by cells viability evaluated with MTT assay. Our results revealed that the enhancement of autophagy in MSCs sensitized them against oxidative stress and inhibition of autophagy led to resistance against oxidative stress in comparison with the control cells. Inhibition of autophagy using non genetic engineering method in MSCs enhances cell viability following exposure to the oxidative stress. This may provide a novel strategy to promote the efficiency of cell therapies following transplantation in the future.