The allogeneic umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells regulate the function of T helper 17 cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis in an in vitro co-culture system

BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders

Lijin Xue²  Zhiqin Lv²  Lihui Ma²  Li Zhang²  Jing Luo²  Xiaofeng Li²  Qin Wang¹ 

[1] Branch hospital in Fengxian of shanghai No. 6 people’s hospital, Shanghai Fengxian Center Hospital, Shanghai, China;The Second Hospital Affiliated of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi, China

关键词: T helper 17 cells;    Rheumatoid arthritis;    Peripheral blood mononuclear cells;    Mesenchymal stem cell;   

Others  :  1134365
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2474-13-249

 received in 2011-11-15, accepted in 2012-11-29,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Previous in vivo studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation significantly improves the condition of a number of autoimmune diseases including autoimmune cerebrospinal meningitis, multiple sclerosis, glomerulonephritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Methods

To investigate the immunoregulatory effect of stem cell transplantation, human umbilical cord MSCs were co-cultured with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Orphan nuclear receptor gamma (ROR-γ) mRNA and protein expression was detected with real-time PCR and Western blotting. Interleukin (IL)-17, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) in the cell culture supernatant were measured using a flow cytometric bead capture method.

Results

After 72 hours of co-culture, the mRNA and protein expression levels of ROR-γ in co-cultured PBMCs were decreased compared with that in PBMC of RA patients cultured alone (p < 0.05). Moreover, the decrement was positively related to the disease activity of RA (p < 0.05). Decreased secretion of IL-17, TNF-α and IL-6 were also found in co-culture supernatants of PBMCs from patients with severe and moderate disease activity, but not in supernatant from PBMCs cultured alone. The decreased cytokine expression levels were positively correlated to the concentrations of MSCs. In contrast, PBMCs from healthy controls or patients with mild RA did not show significant differences in ROR-γ expression or cytokine secretion following co-culture with MSCs as compared with those cultured alone.

Conclusions

In vitro co-culture with MSCs down-regulated the inflammatory response of PBMCs from RA patients with severe disease activity, but had no significant effect on PBMCs from healthy controls or patients with mild disease activity, suggesting that the immunoregulatory role of MSCs may associate with the occurrence of inflammatory mediators.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Wang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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