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Olfactory ecto-mesenchymal stem cells possess immunoregulatory function and suppress autoimmune arthritis

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 13, pages 401–408 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Recent studies have identified olfactory ecto-mesenchymal stem cells (OE-MSCs) as a new type of resident stem cell in the olfactory lamina propria. However, it remains unclear whether OE-MSCs possess any immunoregulatory functions. In this study, we found that mouse OE-MSCs expressed higher transforming growth factor-beta and interleukin-10 levels than bone marrow-derived MSCs. In culture, OE-MSCs exerted their immunosuppressive capacity via directly suppressing effector T-cell proliferation and increasing regulatory T (Treg) cell expansion. In mice with collagen-induced arthritis, adoptive transfer of OE-MSCs markedly suppressed arthritis onset and disease severity, which was accompanied by increased Treg cells and reduced Th1/Th17 cell responses in vivo. Taken together, our findings identified a novel function of OE-MSCs in regulating T-cell responses, indicating that OE-MSCs may represent a new cell therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31470881, 81072453), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20133227110008), the Health Department Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. Z201312), the Graduate Student Research and the Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYLX_1074), the Jiangsu Province ‘333’ Project (Grant No. BRA2015197), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, the National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB541904), and the Hong Kong Croucher Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. S Wang, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Affiliated People’s Hospital, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212002, China. E-mail: sjwjs@mail.ujs.edu.cn

  2. L Lu, Department of Pathology and Centre of Infection and Immunology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. E-mail:liweilu@hku.hk

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Affiliated People’s Hospital, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

    Ke Rui, Xinyi Tang & Shengjun Wang

  2. Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Department of Histology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China

    Ke Rui, Zhijiang Zhang, Jie Tian, Jie Ma, Huaxi Xu & Shengjun Wang

  3. Department of Pathology and Center for Infection and Immunology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Xiang Lin, Xiaohui Wang & Liwei Lu

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  1. Ke Rui
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Rui, K., Zhang, Z., Tian, J. et al. Olfactory ecto-mesenchymal stem cells possess immunoregulatory function and suppress autoimmune arthritis. Cell Mol Immunol 13, 401–408 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2015.82

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