95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Stem Cell Research
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1521809
This article is part of the Research Topic Stem Cell Research and Therapy for Liver and Kidney Diseases View all 3 articles
In-vivo and in-vitro therapeutic evaluation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in liver cancer treatment
Provisionally accepted
Abdur Rahman Johor 1,2
A S M Mahadiuzzaman 1,2
Abdulaziz Abdullah Alqusayer 1,2
Saleh Abdulaziz Alkarim 1,2
F A Dain Md Opo 1,2*- 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddha, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
- 2 King Fahd Center for Medical Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the seventh most common kind of cancer worldwide and the second biggest cause of cancer-related deaths in males, behind lung cancer. In 2022, globally 866,000 people were diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and nearly 42,240 new cases can be identified in 2025 in the United States. Using stem cells obtained from bone marrow can effectively reduce the number of malignant tumor cells through the induction of an epigenetic impact. We obtained bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) from mice and collected the conditioned medium (CM) from cultured cells with 90% confluency. The effect of the conditioned medium was identified using both 2D and 3D sphere cultures of wild-type human liver cancer cell line (HepG2), considering variations in sphere size and percentage. A cell death study was conducted using the cell cytotoxicity (MTT) kit, while the quantity of stem cells was determined by immunohistochemistry and gene expression analysis. The effectiveness of our therapy was demonstrated by an in vivo assessment of BM-MSC through intravenous injection and the currently available anticancer drug cisplatin. In vitro, combination treatment resulted in a synergetic effect, leading to 74% cell death in both adherent and spherical cultures when treated with 25µM of cisplatin in conjugation with 90%CM. In vivo, the histological study indicated a decrease in tumor size and number following treatment with cisplatin and BM-MSCs. The study lasted 18 2 weeks and revealed that the body weight of mice improved across all treatment groups, with the combination group exhibiting the most significant improvement. Both in vitro and in vivo studies showed the synergetic effect of cisplatin and isolated condition medium. Our study aimed to identify more efficient therapeutic approaches utilizing stem cells, as well as existing marketed medication to minimize adverse effects with better efficacy.
Keywords: in-vivo, cell culture, 3D sphere, In-vitro, Cell Death, tumor
Received: 02 Nov 2024; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Johor, Mahadiuzzaman, Alqusayer, Alkarim and Opo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
F A Dain Md Opo, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddha, 21589, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.