Intratracheal transplantation of bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells reduced airway inflammation and up‐regulated CD4⁺CD25⁺ regulatory T cells in asthmatic mouse

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells attenuate the severity of lung injury due to their immunomodulatory properties. The effect of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells on asthma is seldom reported. We have examined the effect of BMSCs on airway inflammation in asthma. Forty female BALB/c mice were equally randomised into PBS group, BMSCs treatment group, BMSCs control group and asthmatic group. Reactivity of the airway to acetylcholine was measured by barometric plethysmography. Cytokine profiles of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Morphometric analysis was done with haematoxylin and periodic-acid Schiff staining. Engraftment of BMSCs in asthmatic mice significantly decreased the number of eosinophils and mononuclear cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and the airway (P < 0.05). Both goblet cell hyperplasia and responsiveness to acetylcholine were significantly reduced in BMSCs treatment groups. Moreover, BMSCs engraftment caused significant increases the ratio of Treg in pulmonary lymph node and interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interleukin-12 levels in BALF and serum. We conclude that BMSCs engraftment ameliorated airway inflammation and improved lung function in asthmatic mouse and the protective effect might be mediated by upregulating Treg and partly involved with increasing IL-10.

Stem cells in animal asthma models: a systematic review

“…No significant effect was seen in 3 other studies [12,15,19]. MSC treatment before sensitization [21], before allergen challenge [24] and after allergen challenge [18] led to a significant increase in BAL IL-10 levels (P < 0.05) in 3 studies, whereas no significant change was noted in 4 studies [9,12,13,23] that used MSC treatment before [9,13,23] and after [12] allergen challenge.…”

“…No significant effect was seen in 2 studies, including the Lathrop et al study [9,13]. MSC treatment led to a significant decrease in BAL IL-13 levels in 3 studies [9,15,17] (P < 0.001 to P < 0.05), including with treatment after allergen challenge [15], whereas BAL IL-13 levels were already low in controls in 1 study [25] and there was no significant change in 5 studies [12,13,20,23,24]. One short-term study that reported on IL-9 levels in BAL found a reduction with MSC treatment (P < 0.05) [26].…”

“…No significant effect was seen in the Lathrop [13] study, the Mariñas-Pardo [12] study, one of the Ge studies [24] and in one group of the Sun study. BAL IL-5 levels were assessed in 9 studies [9,13,15e20,26] and were significantly decreased by MSC treatment in 7 studies [15e20,26] (P < 0.05), including with treatment before sensitization [17,20], before allergen challenge [16,17,19,26] and after allergen challenge [15,18].…”

“…MSC administration occurred before allergen challenge most commonly but also occurred before sensitization [11,17,20,21] or after allergen challenge [12,14,15,18,22] in other studies. MSCs were administered intravenously in all but 3 studies [11,23,24] in which they were administered intratracheally.…”

Rehmannia glutinosa oligosaccharide induces differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells

“…+ regulatory T cells play a significant role in inducing immune tolerance of the graft (Ge et al, 2013). This can be achieved by modulating T cell proliferation as well as by regulating the type and quantity of T cell secretions.…”