Introduction: Growing recognition of paracrine mechanisms in stem cell plasticity has resulted in considerable interest in stem cell-derived secretome. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) preconditioning on the composition and hepatic regenerative activity of adipose-derived stem cell (ASC) secretome.
Methods: Conditioned medium (CM) and LPS-CM were obtained after culturing human ASCs without or with low-dose LPS (0.5 ng/mL) for 24 hours. Untreated and thioacetamide-treated mouse AML12 hepatocytes were incubated for 24 hours with the control medium, LPS (0.5 ng/mL), CM, and LPS-CM and then cell viabilities were compared. CM and LPS-CM were also intravenously administered to partially hepatectomized mice, and their effects on liver regeneration were assessed by using liver weight measurements, immunohistochemistry, and Western blotting.
Results: In the in vitro experiments, LPS preconditioning of ASCs enhanced the mRNA expression levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), hepatocyte growth factor, and vascular endothelial growth factor, which evoke inflammatory response or liver regeneration. LPS-CM significantly promoted thioacetamide-damaged AML12 cell viability compared with CM-incubated cells and the control cells (77%, 69%, and 65% P<0.05). In the in vivo experiment, LPS-CM infusion into the partially hepatectomized mice significantly reduced serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels compared with the other groups (P<0.05) on days 1 and 2 after partial hepatectomy. Moreover, LPS-CM infusion enhanced liver regeneration (based on the liver weight changes at day 7 after partial hepatectomy, 3.73% versus 3.22% in the CM group; P<0.05) and significantly reduced the elevated serum levels of aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase (at day 1, P<0.05).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that LPS preconditioning effectively stimulates ASCs to produce the secretome beneficial to hepatic regeneration. Thus, optimizing ASC secretome profile by LPS preconditioning could be a promising approach to treat liver diseases by using stem cells.