Protective Effect of bFGF on Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cell against Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Apoptosis

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) transplantation has emerged as a promising treatment for various central nervous system diseases. However, oxidative stress results in poor survival of transplanted BMSCs in injury central nervous system (CNS). Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been reported to have anti-apoptotic properties in serial of cells in oxidative stress. This study was designed to investigate protective effect and potential mechanisms of bFGF against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced apoptosis of BMSCs. BMSCs were pretreated with 20 ng/ml of bFGF for 30 minutes, followed by exposure to 500 μM H2O2 and bFGF together for 1 hour. bFGF treatment significantly attenuated H2O2-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis of BMSCs. Moreover, bFGF effectively decreased the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 and increased expression ratio of Bcl-2/Bax in H2O2-induced BMSCs. The findings suggest that bFGF is likely to be an effectively protective agent against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis for BMSCs.