Lithium prevents cell apoptosis through autophagy induction.

OBJECTIVE: Bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs) are widely used as an available source for cell therapy, tissue engineering, and cellular differentiation-based techniques. Therefore, it is necessary to apply a simple method through which BMSCs can be protected from cell apoptosis under tough conditions of cell differentiation. Lithium treatment is one of the simple methods in this regard.

METHODS: The isolated BMSCs were divided into three groups: (a) control, (b) serum deprivation and (c) LiCl. Cell proliferation and apoptosis and autophagy markers in the presence and absence of LiCl were evaluated.

RESULTS: LiCl has shown to increase survival rate of BMSCs under serum deprivation conditions through autophagy induction (reduced P62 and increased LC3II) and apoptosis inhibition (expression of XIAP), so that the cell survival rate, after 12 hours, was 29 %, 59 %, 83 %, 74 %, 49 % for the groups, which received 0, 1, 5, 10, 20 millimolar of LiCl, respectively, as compared to the control group.

CONCLUSION: LiCl leads to decreased apoptosis and increased survival rate through autophagy induction under serum deprivation conditions (Ref. 5, Ref. 37).