Paracrine Interleukin-8 affects mesenchymal stem cells through the Akt pathway and enhances human umbilical vein endothelial cell proliferation and migration

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) promotes cell homing and angiogenesis, but its effects on activating human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and promoting angiogenesis are unclear. We used bioinformatics to predict these processes. In vitro, BMSCs were stimulated in a high-glucose (HG) environment with 50 μg/mL or 100 μg/mL IL-8 were used as the IL-8 group. 5μmol/L Triciribine was added to the two IL-8 groups as the Akt inhibitor group. Cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured in BMSCs conditioned medium (CM). Observe the changes in proliferation, apoptosis, migration ability and levels of VEGF and IL-6 in HUVEC each group. 70 processes and 26 pathways were involved in vascular development, through which IL-8 affected BMSCs. Compared with the high-glucose control group, HUVEC proliferation A value, Gap closure rate, and Transwell cell migration rate in the IL-8 50 and IL-8 100 CM groups were significantly increased (P<0.01, n=30). However, HUVEC apoptosis was significantly decreased (P<0.01, n=30). Akt and phospho-Akt protein contents in lysates of BMSCs treated with IL-8, as well as VEGF and IL-6 protein contents in the supernatant of BMSCs treated with IL-8, were all highly expressed (P<0.01, n=15). These analyses confirmed that IL-8 promoted the expression of 41 core proteins in BMSCs through the PI3K Akt pathway, which could promote the proliferation and migration of vascular endothelial cells. Therefore, in a high-glucose environment, IL-8 activated the Akt signaling pathway, promoted paracrine mechanisms of BMSCs, and improved the proliferation and migration of HUVECs.