Mesenchymal stem cells inhibit the growth of prostate carcinoma cells in a long-term cultivation

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) migrate to sites of inflammation and tumor formation in the body. In this way, MSCs become activated and release a plethora of growth factors and cytokines that are involved in the regulation and remodeling of the tumor microenvironment. The effect of MSCs on tumor cells is bipolar by nature and the data on this interaction is quite contradictory. The purpose of this work is to investigate the interaction between MSCs of different origin (bone marrow, adipose tissue) and PC-3 tumor cell line derived from prostate cancer in a long-term (9 days) cultivation. Our study assessed the proliferation, vitality and apoptosis of PC-3 tumor cells exposed to MSCs' contact and products. As a result, we observed a significant growth inhibitory effect on PC-3 cells due to cell-to-cell contact with MSCs. Furthermore, tumor cells also showed contact-mediated increase in apoptosis levels. In addition, bone marrow-derived MSCs had a stronger effect on the PC-3 cell line compared to adipose tissue-derived MSCs.