Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effects of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) under shear stress on the biological function such as proliferation, adhesion, migration, apoptosis and expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), collagen-I and collagen-Ⅲ of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). Methods: HSCs and EPCs were inoculated into the upper and lower layers of the co-culture chamber respectively and co-incubated for 24 hours. Then, 12 dyne/cm² shear stress was applied to EPCs cells for another 24 hours. After that, proliferation, adhesion, migration and apoptosis of HSCs were detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) kit, cell adherent assay, Boyden cell migration assay and flow cytometry respectively. Fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western blot were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression of alpha -SMA, collagen I and collagen-Ⅲ in HSCs. Results: Under shear stress, EPCs ecological niche could obviously inhibit the proliferation, adhesion and migration of HSCs, promote the apoptosis of HSCs, and down-regulate the mRNA and protein expression of collagen-I, collagen-Ⅲ in HSC cells. Conclusion: Under shear stress, EPCs ecological niche could inhibit the fibrosis development of HSCs to a certain extent.

Key words: endothelial progenitor cells, hepatic stellate cells, shear stress, co-culture, ecological niche