Effect of Sodium Arsenite on Rat Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Cells Viability and Morphological Study

Introduction & Sodium arsenite as an environmental pollutant being found in the air, water, and earth crust threats the human being's health. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sodium arsenite on viability and morphology of mesenchymal stem cells in rat bone marrow. In this exprimental study the cells were extracted in DMEM containing 15% FBS and Pen/Strep until the 3rd passage then treated with 0, 0.1, 0.5, 2.5, 12.5 and 20 µM of sodium arsenite for 12, 24, 36 and 48 hrs. Viability of the cells was carried out with trypan blue and MTT staining, then 0.1 µM and 36 hrs treatment was selected for further investigations. Morphology of the cells was studied using fluorescent dye (Hochest, propidium iodide and acridine orange as well as protein profile of the cells were studied using SDS-PAGE. Data was analyzed using one and two way ANOVA. Based on the two way ANOVA, cumulative effect of treatment time and used dosage caused highly significant reduction (p<0.001) in viability of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. One way ANOVA indicated that the viability of the cells reduced significantly (p<0.05) from 0.1 µM of sodium arsenite on wards in all the treatment time. Morphological changes including condensation and deformation of the nuclei, membrane disruption, and shrinkage of cytoplasm were also observed. Sodium arsenite toxicity caused morphological and protein profile changes as well as dose and time dependent reduction in viability of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.