Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Mar 26, 2019; 11(3): 196-211
Published online Mar 26, 2019. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v11.i3.196
Stromal cell-derived factor-1α promotes recruitment and differentiation of nucleus pulposus-derived stem cells
Jin-Wei Ying, Tian-Yong Wen, Shi-Shen Pei, Ling-Hao Su, Di-Ke Ruan
Jin-Wei Ying, Shi-Shen Pei, Ling-Hao Su, Di-Ke Ruan, The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Jin-Wei Ying, Tian-Yong Wen, Shi-Shen Pei, Ling-Hao Su, Di-Ke Ruan, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Navy General Hospital, Beijing 100048, China
Author contributions: Ying JW performed the majority of experiments and analyzed the data; Pei SS and Su LH performed the cell isolation and identification; Ying JW and Su LH performed the animal experiment; Wen TY collected the data and performed the statistical analysis; Ruan DK designed and coordinated the research; Ying JW and Ruan DK wrote the paper.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81772399.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by The General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of The General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army.
Conflict-of-interest statement: To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Di-Ke Ruan, PhD, Chief Doctor, Doctor, Surgeon, the Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, South Shatai Road, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China; Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Navy General Hospital, Fucheng Road, Beijing, China. ruandikengh@163.com
Telephone: +86-10-68780323 Fax: +86-10-68780323
Received: November 14, 2018
Peer-review started: November 15, 2018
First decision: December 10, 2018
Revised: December 19, 2018
Accepted: January 26, 2019
Article in press: January 26, 2019
Published online: March 26, 2019
Processing time: 132 Days and 21.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α) is upregulated in the pro-inflammatory microenvironment or degenerative intervertebral disc (IVD). The present study demonstrates for the first time that SDF-1α effectively promotes migration and chondrogenic differentiation of nucleus pulposus-derived stem cells (NPSCs), which serve as endogenous progenitor/stem cells residing in the IVD. In addition, SDF-1/CXCR4 chemotaxis signals may play a crucial role in the process of recruitment and chondrogenic differentiation of NPSCs that are involved in spontaneous IVD regeneration in the early stage of IVD degeneration.