Introduction: Cardiac glycosides such as digoxin or digitoxin are the natural products that are
traditionally used to increase cardiac contractile force in patients with heart failure and cardiac
arrhythmias. It has been shown that digoxin can directly inhibit the cell proliferation and lead
to cell apoptosis. Present study was conducted to analyze the effect of digoxin in the cohorts of
mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) -based therapy.
Methods: MSCs were cultured and treated with different concentrations (0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 7, 10, 15,
20, 30 and 40 μM) of digoxin for 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours. MTT assay was performed to study cell
viability and proliferation.
Results: After 24 and 48 hours, cell viability was significantly decreased in 20, 30 and 40 μM
concentrations (P<0.05), but significant decline in cell viability was observed only in 40 μM
after 12 hours (P<0.05). After 6 hours, cell viability of experimental groups had no significant
differences toward control group (P>0.05).
Conclusion: It is suggested that digoxin may lead to decline in cell survival ability and increase
in cell apoptosis in a dose-time dependent pattern. It is recommended to consider application of
glycosoids in concurrence with stem cell therapy.
Type of Study:
Original |
Received: 2014/04/4 | Accepted: 2014/08/8 | Published: 2014/11/1