To study the effects and mechanisms of
interleukin-8 (IL-8) on the proliferation and autophagy of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSC) under hypoxic condition. In the
hypoxia model, we set the non-stimulated hBMSC as the
hypoxia control group; the hBMSC stimulated by 100 μmol/L human
IL-8 as the
IL-8 group; the hBMSC stimulated by 50 μmol/L
MK2206 (Akt
protein inhibitor) and 100μmol/L
IL-8 as the Akt inhibitor group; and the normal cultured hBMSC as the normal control group. The experiments of EdU cell proliferation and TUNEL apoptosis were respectively used to detect the number of positive cells that were labeled by EdU and apoptosis in each group, and Western blotting and ELISA were used respectively to detect the expression of autophagy
protein (LC-3), Akt/STAT3 and other
proteins in each group. The results indicated that the proliferation and autophagy of hBMSC in
IL-8 group was higher than that in
hypoxia control group and Akt inhibitor group, and the apoptosis rate in
IL-8 group decreased. These results and the high expression of Akt, STAT3 and
VEGF protein of
IL-8 group show that under the hypoxic condition,
IL-8 played a protective role on MSC through the Akt-STAT3 pathway. It had important significance in the protection of MSC against the injury due to
ischemia and
hypoxia, and promoted the application of MSC in regenerative medicine.