Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of CD44 fucosylation on fluid adhesion force of rabbit bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). METHODS: The rabbit BMSCs were isolated and purified by density gradient centrifugation combined with adherent culture method. The morphology of cells were observed by inverted microscope, and the cell surface markers of CD44, CD34, CD29, and CD105 were assessed by flow cytometry. BMSCs fucosylated by alpha-(1, 3)-fucosyltransferase Ⅵ (FTⅥ) were as the experimental group, and the non-fucosylated BMSCs were as the control group, and then the positive rate of sialyl-LewisX (sLe (X)) and the binding rate of E-selectin were detected by flow cytometry. The fucosylated BMSCs resuspended in Hank balanced salt solution (HBSS) were assigned as the experimental group (group A), at same time, the non-fucosylated BMSCs resuspended in HBSS solution as the study control group (group B), and the fucosylated BMSCs resuspended in HBSS solution which was added EDTA as negative control group (group C). The fluid adhesion force of rabbit BMSCs were detected by the parallel flow chamber adhesion test. RESULTS: Primary BMSCs mainly shaped as spindle and kept strong growth. The third generation BMSCs were negative for CD34, but positive for CD44, CD29, and CD105. After fucosylation, the positive rate of sLe (X) in the experimental group was 32.52%±1.76%, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (1.48%±0.51%) ( t=29.277, P= 0.000). The binding rate of E-selectin in the experimental group was 41.05%±1.84%, which was also significantly higher than that in the control group (4.33%±0.92%) ( t=35.674, P=0.000). With the increase of fluid shear force, the number of BMSCs adhering to the surface of human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVEC) in group A was increased at first and then decreased, while there was few BMSCs adhering to the surface of HUVEC in groups B and C. Under the different fluid shear stress, the number of BMSCs adhered to the surface of HUVEC in group A was significantly higher than that in groups B and C ( P<0.05), and there was no significant difference between groups B and C ( P>0.05). CONCLUSION: CD44 fucosylation on BMSCs can enhance the fluid adhesion force of rabbit BMSCs.