| Objective: To investigate the regulatory effects of umbilical cord derived mesen- chymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) on Th17 cells and related cytokines in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).Method: Human UC-MSCs were isolated and expanded and infused into fourteen SLE patients. Clinical changes were evaluated before and after transplantation by SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), twenty-four-hour urine protein, serum albumin and complement C3. The percentages of CD3+CD8-IL17A+T cells in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry. Concentrations of plasma IL-6, TGF-β, IL-17A, IL-22 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). UC-MSCs and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) were co-cultured at different ratios (MSCs: PBMC=1:1, 1:5, 1:10) to examine the change of CD3+CD8-IL17A+T cells by flow cytometry.Results: SLEDAI scores decreased significantly at 3 month (7.8±1.2) and 6 month (6.9±0.9) after UC-MSCs transplantation than pre-transplantation level (10.4±0.9, p<0.05). Twenty-four-hour urine protein decreased significantly 6 months after MSCs infusion (1489±260mg vs 2454±322mg, p <0.05). Meanwhile, serum albumin and complement C3 levels increased significantly since 1 month after transplantation (p<0.05). The percentages of peripheral blood CD3+CD8-IL17A+T cells decreased obviously 1 week (1.30±1.02, n=13), 1 month (0.73±0.60, n=13) and 6 months (0.52±0.40, n=10) after UC-MSCs transplantation when compared with before UC-MSC infusion (1.69±1.13, n=14, all p<0.05). The co-culture of UC-MSCs with PBMC from SLE patients resulted in a statistically reduce of CD3+CD8-IL17A+T cells percentage in PBMC (p<0.05), without a dose-dependent manner. No changes of plasma IL-6, TGF-β, IL-17A and IL-22 levels were observed after UC-MSCs transplantation (p>0.05).Conclusion: UC-MSCs transplantation downregulates the percentages of CD3+CD8- IL17A+T cells in SLE patients, which may be one of the mechanisms for its thera- peutic effect in refractory SLE. |
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