Experimental study of chemotactic effects of total body irradiation in rat bone-marrow extracts on dermal multipotent stem cells

Objective To observe the effects of bone-marrow (BM) extracts from rats with total body irradiation (TBI) on the migration of dMSCs and to measure the distribution of transplanted dMSCs in rats quantitatively. Methods A microchemotaxis chamber, Transwell system, was used to observe the effects of BM extracts on the migration of dMSCs. Rat dMSCs labeled with 3H-TdR were transplanted into rats and the distribution in various organs were measured by liquid scintillation. Results BM extracts from TBI rats significantly increased dMSCs migration across the membrane of the microchemotaxis chamber as compared with those in the control group (P0.01). From 1 week after injury, the amount of dMSCs in BM of TBI rats was larger than that of the non-injured rats (P0.01). As far as per gram tissue was concerned, the amount of dMSCs in BM was greater than that of lung and liver in TBI rats at 3 and 4 weeks after TBI. Conclusions Our results suggest that BM extracts from TBI rats can enhance the migration of dMSCs, and thus promote the transplanted dMSCs to migrate to irradiation-injured BM.