The effect of bone marrow derived c-kit+ cells on lung inflammation and expersion of IL-4, IFN-γ and IL-10 genes in lung tissues of chronic asthmatic male rats

Abstract

Induction of asthma in animals occurs in both chronic and acute forms. Regarding the chronic entity of asthma, induction of chronic asthma can reflect real characteritis of asthma in human counterparts. To this end, in this experiment the effect of systemic delivery of c-kit+ cells extracted from bone marrow was studied on the inflammatory responses and pathological changes in lung tissues of chronic rat model of asthma.

Methods Fifty male wistar rats were used in the current study. Eight rats were used randomly for isolation of c-kit+ cells and the rest of rats were divided into 4 experimental groups; control (C); Asthmatic (CA); Asthmatic + c-kit- cells (CA + c-kit- cells) and Asthmatic + c-kit+ cells (CA + c-kit+ cells). In the asthmatic groups, chronic asthma was established by ovalbumin (OVA) over a course of 70 days. Two weeks post-transplantation, animals were euthanized and their lung tissue was removed. The expression of IL-4، ICAM-1، VCAM-1 and IFN-γ genes was investigated using real-time PCR. Levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in the BAL fluid were determined by ELISA method. Pathological injuries were assessed using H&E staining.

Results Our data revealed systemic injection of c-kit+ cells could significantly diminish chronic pathological changes in lung tissue of asthmatic animals by modulating the expression of IL-4, INF-γ, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 in lung tissues and TNF-α, and IL-1β levels in BAL flouid. In contrary, c-Kit- cells did not yield any beneficial effect.