Abstract
It has widely been reported that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) promotes proliferation of human stem cells and contributes to the maintenance of their self-renewal capability through repeated replications. In contrast to embryonic stem cells (ESCs), the effects of growth factors on adult stem cells are poorly understood.
In human umbilical cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells (hUCB-MSCs), bFGF is associated with an increased number of proliferating cells. Furthermore, expression levels of ESC markers were increased after treatment with bFGF. bFGF also increased the expression of FGFR, which in turn increased expression of insulin-like growth factor (IGFs). Since IGFs exert autocrine and paracrine effects on stem cells, bFGF-mediated release of IGFs from hUCB-MSCs might enhance FGFR1 and IGF1R expression in neighboring cells. These receptors could subsequently regulate the effects of bFGF and IGFs in adult stem cells.
These results suggest that positive feedback regulation of bFGF and IGFs leads to proliferation of hUCB-MSCs.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Seoul R&D program (No. 10548), KOSEF(No. M10641450002-06N4145-00200), the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) and BK21 program for Veterinary Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.