The Effects of Conditioned Medium from Bone Marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells on EMT Markers

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in colorectal cancer cell is a critical process in which cells lose their epithelial properties and obtain mesenchymal characteristics, resulting in tumor cells and metastasis. This study attempted to work on the effects of conditioned medium from bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells on EMT markers.

In this study, HT29 was used which is the colorectal cancer cell line. Cells were treated for 72 hours with BMSC-CM in order to induce EMT in HT29. The Real-Time PCR was used for evaluating EMT markers such as E-cadherin-β-catenin -vimentin-and transcription factors.

Inducing EMT in colorectal cancer cells caused morphological changes. It was manifested that E-cadherinis downregulated after induction of EMT with treated BMSC-CM. On the other hand, there were a significant increase in β-catenin, Vimentin, Snail and ZEB1 expression.

Understanding the molecular basis of tumor metastasis is critical for colorectal cancer treatment. Findings demonstrated morphological alterations in consequence MSCs-CM activates induction of EMT. This process affects EMT markers of E-cadherina, Vimentin, β-Catenin and transcription factors of Snail and ZEB1. This model helps knowing cancer and metastasis pathway and also could be used in drug screening procedures.