Background: Hypoxia-induced damage is one of the key factors associated with islet graft dysfunction. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) could be used to enhance therapeutic effect of islet transplantation because of their paracrine potential such as exosomes. In this study, we investigated whether exosomes from human umbilical cord derived MSCs conditioned medium (hu-MSC-CM) could increase survival and function of neonatal porcine islet cell clusters (NICCs) exposed to hypoxia.
Methods: NICCs were cultured with hu-MSC-CM with exosomes, without exosomes and native medium RPMI-1640 (Control) under hypoxic condition (1% O2). The effect of exosomes on NICCs’ viability and function in vitro was examined by FACS, Loops system and Extracellular Flux Assay, respectively. Results: Compared with NICCs cultured in RPMI-1640 medium and hu-MSC-CM without exosomes, the survival ratio, viability and function of NICCs which were cultured in hu-MSC-CM with exosomes increased.
Conclusions: This study presents that hu-MSC-CM could protect NICCs from hypoxia–induced dysfunction, and exosomes play an important role in hypoxic resistance, suggesting a potential strategy to improve islet transplantation outcomes.