The therapeutic effect of embryonic stem cells on acute lung injury induced by bleomycin in mice

AIM: The aim of this study was to observe and compare the therapy effect of different kinds of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) on pulmonary injury of mice exposed to bleomycin. These embryonic stem cells were C57BL/6J-ESC,S8-ESC and human-ESC.METHODS: (1) Fifty C57BL/6J female mice were divided randomly into five groups, which were blank control group, bleomycin model group, bleomycin model injected with C57BL/6J-ESC group, bleomycin model with S8-ESC group and bleomycin model with human ESC group. Every group has ten mice. (2) The mice of control group were administrated 0.9% sodium chloride solution and the mice in other four groups were administrated bleomycin intratracheally. Three different kinds of ESCs were administrated to the mice in three different ESCs-treated groups respectively one hour after bleomycin exposure. The life-span and hydrocyproline concentration were examined. The pathologic changes of the lung and the engraftment of the ESCs in the injured lung were observed. RESULTS: (1) The death rate in three different ESCs-treated groups declined much more obviously than that in the control group on 8 days after bleomycin exposure (bleomycin model group 50%, C57BL/6J-ESC group 37.5%, S8-ESC group 20%, human-ESC group 20%). (2) The extent of pathologic changes of the lung in S8-ESC group was lighter significantly than that in the bleomycin model group, but in C57BL/6J-ESC group and human-ESC group, their pathologic changes were similar to that in bleomycin model group. (3) The hydrocyproline concentration in S8-ESC group was lower distinctly than that in bleomycin model group (P<0.01); the hydrocyproline concentration in human-ESC group was also lower than that in bleomycin model group (P<0.05); there was no significant difference between C57BL/6J-ESC group and bleomycin model group (P>0.05). (4) The positive signals of three kinds of ESCs could be found in the lung at 1, 3, 12 and 24 hours after the stem cells were administrated, but signals were the strongest 3 hours after stem cells were given. All of the signals disappeared three days later. CONCLUSION: S8-ESCs transplantation can improve the tolerence of mice to bleomycin and ameliorate acute lung injury.