[Effect of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on biological characteristics of esophageal cancer EC1 cells].

To investigate the effects of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and stemness of esophageal cancer EC1 cells. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells were isolated and cultured and cell phenotype was identified by flow cytometry. MSCs or their conditioned medium were co-cultured with esophageal cancer EC1 cells. The effects on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and stemness of EC1 cells were examined by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), flow cytometry, Transwell, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and spheroid formation assays. MSCs inhibited the proliferation of EC1 cells in a concentration dependent manner. When the ratio of MSCs to EC1 cells was 0∶1, 1∶1, 2∶1, 5∶1, the apoptotic rates of EC1 cells were (4.07±0.34)%, (8.90±0.36)%, (10.80±0.50)% and (15.23±1.06)%, respectively, suggesting that MSCs promoted the apoptosis of EC1 cells in a concentration dependent manner (all <0.05). The expression levels of OCT2, SOX2, KLF4, CXCR4 and CXCR7 in EC1 cells cultured in 80% conditioned medium were 0.53±0.03, 0.49±0.02, 0.73±0.09, 0.57±0.05 and 0.24±0.02, respectively, which were lower than those in the regular medium group (all <0.05). The numbers of migrated cells in regular medium as well as 10%, 40%, and 80% conditioned medium were 287.3±21.6, 280.7±15.5, 264.3±16.8, and 257.7±8.0, respectively. Meanwhile, the numbers of invasive cells were 194.3±16.6, 213.7±24.3, 221.0±16.0, (252.0±20.4), respectively. There was no significant difference between the groups (all >0.05). Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells can inhibit the proliferation, promote apoptosis and reduce the stemness, and have no significant effect on the migration and invasion of EC1 cells.