Conditioned media from human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells: potential effect on peripheral blood mononuclear cells in co-culture with HeLa cell line

The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for the treatment of various diseases is being investigated, however, their use in cervical cancer has not been well-studied. Here, we examined the impact of collected MSC–conditioned medium (CM) on 1 to 5 days on apoptosis, proliferation, and cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) when co-cultured alongside the HeLa cell line for 24, 48, and 72 h by CFSE assay, flow cytometry, and real-time PCR, respectively. We found that CMs collected on the third day of MSCs culture significantly increased the proliferation of PBMCs and decreased the proliferation of HeLa cells after 48 h. CMs showed no significant effects on cell death, whereas it significantly increased the apoptosis of HeLa cells. Real-time PCR analysis showed that the presence of CM collected on the third day of MSCs culture caused a significant increase in the gene expression of IL2, IFN-γ, and TGF-β in PBMCs after 48 h co-culture with HeLa cells. The data mentioned earlier demonstrate that MSC–CM can induce the growth and endurance of PBMCs while concurrently culturing HeLa cells. This observation indicates their promising potential as immunomodulatory therapies for cervical cancer cells. Nevertheless, additional investigation is imperative to comprehensively comprehend the fundamental mechanisms and refine therapeutic strategies involving PBMCs and mesenchymal stem cells.