Abstract
Here, we report that glucagon-like peptide-1 analogue liraglutide could enhance survival of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) following co-delivery in fibrin gel matrix. The hMSCs were treated with various concentrations (≤100 nM) of liraglutide. After 48 h, 100 nM liraglutide-treated hMSCs showed 1.4-fold higher cell viability than untreated hMSCs. Calcein staining for live cells and trypan blue staining for dead cells provided visual evidences that treatment of hMSCs with liraglutide increased cell survival. To evaluate the cell survival of hMSCs after in vivo transplantation, genomic DNA of hMSCs was quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction by detecting human Alu element. Four days after transplantation, the survival of hMSCs co-transplanted with liraglutide (1.9 μg/kg) was 7.7-fold higher than that of plain hMSCs formulation. Taken together, our findings suggest the potential of liraglutide as a transplantation adjuvant for increasing in vivo survival of hMSCs.