Therapeutic potential of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells on experimental liver injury induced by Schistosoma mansoni: A histological study

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) have been proposed as effectivetreatment of many diseases owing to their unique ability to differentiate into other cell types in vivo. Schistosomamansoni (S. mansoni) infection is characterized by hepatic granuloma formation around schistosome eggs at acute stageof infection, followed by hepatic fibrosis at chronic and advanced stages. Whether BM-MSCs have an ameliorativeeffect on hepatic tissue injury caused by S. mansoni infection or not, was inspected in the current study.Materials and Results: Female Swiss Albino mice were divided into a control group and an experimental group. Halfof control animals served as donors for bone marrow stem cells, and the other half was used to collect liver samples.Experimental group was injected with circariae of S. mansoni, and then subdivided into three subgroups; SubgroupB1, sacrificed after eight weeks of infection without treatment, subgroup B2, received BM-MSCs at the eighth weekand sacrificed four weeks later, and subgroup B3, was untreated till the twelfth week of infection. Histological examinationof liver samples showed the formation of granulomas and liver fibrosis which were extensive in subgroup B3.However, treated subgroup illustrated improvement of liver histology, signs of hepatocytes regeneration, and possiblecontribution of oval cell in the process of hepatic and biliary regeneration.Conclusion: BM-MSCs decreased liver fibrosis and contributed to an increase in oval cells, generation of new hepatocytesand/or to the improvement of resident hepatocytes in S. mansoni infected mice.