The effect of intravenous injection of bone marrow derived c-kit+ cells on expression of IL-5 and IL-10 in lung tissue of OVA-induced rat model of asthma

Abstract

Nowadays, cell therapy is one of the most promising and effective strategies to overcome many chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma. But there are still many questions about the optimum cell type, origin, and administration route. In the current study, the effect of systemic injection of c-kit+ cells extracted from bone marrow on the inflammatory responses and pathological changes in lung tissues of ovalbumin-induced asthmatic male rats were examined. Methods Forty-four male rats were enrolled in the current study. Twelve rats were randomly used for extraction of of c-kit+ and c-kit- cells. The remaining animals were equally assigned into four groups; control (C); Asthmatic (AA); Asthmatic + c-kit- cells (AA + c-kit- cells) and Asthmatic + c-kit+ cells (AA + c-kit+ cells). In the asthmatic groups, for induction of asthmatic condition, the animals were exposed with ovalbu¬min over a course of 32 days. Control rats were exposed to sterile normal saline in stead of ovalbu¬min. Two weeks post-transplantation, levels of TNF-α in the bronchoalveolar fluid, pathological changes and the expression of IL-5 and IL-10 genes in lung tissue was investigated. Results Data revealed pathological damages in lung tissue of asthmatic rats coincided with the down regulation of IL-10 and up-regulation IL-5 and TNF-α compared to the control group. Systemic delivery of c-kit+ cells diminished OVA -induced changes.