Mechanisms of foam cell formation in smooth muscle cell derived from bone marrow stem cells

Objective To establish a model of smooth muscle cells differentiated from bone mesenchymal stem cells(BMSC-SMCs) in vitro and explore the relationship between scavenger receptors A(SR-A) and caveolin-1.Methods BMSCs were isolated from the femoral bone of SD rats by adherent culture.After treatment of the BMSC-SMCs with 80 mg/L ox-LDL for 72 h,Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of scavenger receptor SR-A,cell cholesterol transport protein ATP-binding cassette transporter Al(ABCA1) and caveolin-1.Results BMCS-SMCs became foam cells after treatment with ox-LDL.BMSC-SMC gave rise to more foam cell formation than VSMCsdid.Western blotting showed that treatment with 80 mg/L ox-LDL for 72 h resulted in significantly increased expression of SR-A and significantly decreased expressions of ABCA1 and caveolin-1.Conclusion Treatment of BMCS-SMCs with ox-LDL results in cholesterol ester accumulation in the cells to result in foam cells,the mechanism of which involves up-regulation of scavenger receptor SR-A expression and down-regulation of the reverse cholesterol transport protein ABCA1 and caveolin-1 expression.