Abstract
BackgroundMesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation is emerging as a promising cell therapeutic strategy in acute liver failure (ALF) clinical research. The potency of MSCs to migrate and engraft into targeted lesions could largely determine their clinical efficacy, in which chemokine/receptor axes play a crucial role. Unfortunately, the downregulation of chemokine receptors expression after in vitro expansion results in a poor homing capacity of MSCs.MethodsBy evaluating the chemokine expression profile in the liver of ALF patients and ALF mice, we found that CCL2 expression was highly upregulated in damaged livers, while the corresponding receptor, CCR2, was lacking in cultured MSCs. Thus, we genetically modified MSCs to overexpress CCR2 and investigated the targeted homing capacity and treatment efficacy of MSCCCR2 compared to those of the MSCvector control.ResultsIn vivo and ex vivo near-infrared fluorescence imaging showed that MSCCCR2 rapidly migrated and localized to injured livers in remarkably greater numbers following systemic infusion, and these cells were retained in liver lesions for a longer time than MSCvector. Furthermore, MSCCCR2 exhibited significantly enhanced efficacy in the treatment of ALF in mice, which was indicated by a dramatically improved survival rate, the alleviation of liver injury with reduced inflammatory infiltration and hepatic apoptosis, and the promotion of liver regeneration.ConclusionsAltogether, these results indicate that CCR2 overexpression enhances the targeted migration of MSCs to damaged livers, improves their treatment effect, and may provide a novel strategy for improving the efficacy of cell therapy for ALF.
Highlights
IntroductionXu et al Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2022) 13:55 cell therapy in regenerative medicine
Acute liver failure (ALF) is a life-threatening condition with a high mortality rate caused by a variety of factors, such as viral infection, drug-induced hepatotoxicity, and autoimmune or metabolic disease, whereas the Recently, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation has emerged as a promising candidate forXu et al Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2022) 13:55 cell therapy in regenerative medicine
CCL2 expression is highly upregulated in the liver of acute liver failure (ALF) patients and ALF mice To investigate the specific chemokine expression profile of ALF, we evaluated the mRNA expression levels of various chemokines associated with liver inflammation, including CXCL1, CXCL10, CXCL12, CXCL13, CXCL16, CCL2, CCL17, CCL19, CCL21, CCL22, and CCL27, in the liver of ALF patients undergoing liver transplantation and compared the levels with those in healthy donors [28,29,30,31]
Summary
Xu et al Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2022) 13:55 cell therapy in regenerative medicine Due to their self-renewal, multipotent differentiation, and immunoregulatory characteristics and because they can be isolated and expanded in vitro [2,3,4,5], MSCs can be infused as a potential alternative treatment for ALF. It has been shown that the treatment efficacy of MSCs depends largely on their capacity to engraft into lesions [9,10,11,12]. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation is emerging as a promising cell therapeutic strategy in acute liver failure (ALF) clinical research. The potency of MSCs to migrate and engraft into targeted lesions could largely determine their clinical efficacy, in which chemokine/receptor axes play a crucial role.
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