IGF-1 Gene Transfer to Human Synovial MSCs Promotes Their Chondrogenic Differentiation Potential without Induction of the Hypertrophic Phenotype

الملخص EN

Mesenchymal stem cell- (MSC-) based therapy is a promising treatment for cartilage.

However, repair tissue in general fails to regenerate an original hyaline-like tissue.

In this study, we focused on increasing the expression levels for insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) to improve repair tissue quality.

The IGF-1 gene was introduced into human synovial MSCs with a lentiviral vector and examined the levels of gene expression and morphological status of MSCs under chondrogenic differentiation condition using pellet cultures.

The size of the pellets derived from IGF-1-MSCs were significantly larger than those of the control group.

The abundance of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) was also significantly higher in the IGF-1-MSC group.

The histology of the IGF-1-induced pellets demonstrated similarities to hyaline cartilage without exhibiting features of a hypertrophic chondrocyte phenotype.

Expression levels for the Col2A1 gene and protein were significantly higher in the IGF-1 pellets than in the control pellets, but expression levels for Col10, MMP-13, ALP, and Osterix were not higher.

Thus, IGF-1 gene transfer to human synovial MSCs led to an improved chondrogenic differentiation capacity without the detectable induction of a hypertrophic or osteogenic phenotype.