Targeted inhibition of osteosarcoma tumor growth by bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells expressing cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine in tumor-bearing mice.

Background Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered as an attractive approach for gene or drug delivery in cancer therapy. In the present study, the ability of human bone marrow-derived MSCs expressing the cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine prodrug (CD/5-FC MSCs) to target the human osteosarcoma cell line Cal72 was evaluated. Methods The stable CD/5-FC MSC cell line was established by transfection of pEGFP containing the cytosine deaminase gene into MSCs with G418 selection. The anti-tumor effect was verified by a bystander effect assay in vitro and co-injection of Cal72 and CD/5-FC MSCs in cancer-bearing mice. Results The therapeutic CD/5-FC MSCs retained the characteristics of multipotent cells, such as differentiation into adipocytes/osteocytes and expression of mesenchymal markers (CD90 and CD44), and showed migration toward Cal72 cells to a greater extent than the native MSCs. The bystander effect assay showed that the CD/5-FC MSCs significantly augmented Cal72 cytotoxicity in direct co-culture and in the presence of 5-FC through the application of conditioned medium. In osteosarcoma-bearing mice, the CD/5-FC MSCs inhibited tumor growth compared to control mice subcutaneously injected with only Cal72 cells. Conclusions Taken together, these findings suggest that CD/5-FC MSCs may be suitable for targeting human osteosarcoma. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.