Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cell (BMSC) Exosomes Inhibit Angiogenesis and Enhance Autophagy Through Decreasing miR-21 in Cervical Cancer

We aimed to explore the mechanism underlying the role of miR-21 derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell exosomes (BMSC-exos) in cervical cancer (CC) and the relation between angiogenesis and autophagy. In this study, BMSC-exos were co-cultured with CC stem cells followed by analysis of miR-21 expression by RT-qPCR, autophagy after hunger-induced feeding by Acridine Orange fluorescent staining, angiogenesis by tube formation assay. Co-culture of BMSC-exos effectively reduced miR-21 expression in CC stem cells and enhanced autophagy as demonstrated by upregulated Beclin1 and LC3B with assembly of autophagosome (p < 0.05), but the autophagy restored later. Moreover, in the presence of BMSC-exos, CC stem cell angiogenesis was suppressed by 79%. In conclusion, BMSC-exos enhance autophagy and inhibit angiogenesis in CC through decreasing miR-21, which provides a novel insight into etiology of CC.