Effects of octylphenol on the expression of cell cycle-related genes and the growth of mesenchymal stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is defined as blood that exists in the placenta and in the attached umbilical cord following childbirth. Cord blood is now used for research purposes as it contains mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), multipotent stromal cells which have the ability to differentiate into a variety of cell types. Among endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), octylphenol (OP) is one of the alkylphenols, which are widely used industrial chemicals; these chemicals cause a number of serious side-effects, such as reproductive abnormalities. In this study, we isolated human MSCs from UCB and demonstrate that cultured MSCs express the surface marker, CD34, but not CD105. We further examined the effects of OP on human UCB-derived MSCs following exposure to OP by cell proliferation assay, semi-quantitative RT-PCR and western blot analysis. The results revealed that the transcriptional and translational levels of cyclin D1 were increased, while the levels of p21 were suppressed in the MSCs treated with OP compared with the negative controls. This collapse of the regulation of the cell cycle may directly stimulate the growth of the MSCs under culture conditions. The results from the present study provide further insight into the effects of common EDCs on MSCs derived from human UCB. However, further studies are required to identify the signaling pathways which mediate the effects of EDCs on MSCs.