Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells produced TGFbeta contributes to progression and metastasis of prostate cancer

Abstract

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) play an important role in the development of human cancers. In the present study, we observed that hMSCs promoted human prostate cancer (PCa) cell PC-3 growth in vivo and in vitro. The conditional medium of hMSCs promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of PC-3 cells. The expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in PC-3 was upregulated by conditional medium of hMSCs. In addition, blocking tumor transformation factor beta (TGFβ) blunted the pro-oncogenic function of hMSCs. These results suggest that hMSCs may play a pro-oncogenic role in the growth of human prostate caner by producing TGFβ.