Effects of HO-1 modified rat bon e marrow mesenchymal stem cells on lymphocytes in vitro

Abstract

Objective To investigate the immunomodulatory effects of heme oxygenase-1 （ HO-1） modified rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells （ BM-MSCs） on lymphocytes .Methods Rat BM-MSCs were cultured and identified in vitro.HO-1 gene was transduced into BM-MSCs via recombinant adenovirus （rAdV） to construct HO-1/BM MSCs, which were then co-cultured with rat spleen lymphocytes .The cellu-lar activity of lymphocytes was detected by using MTT method .The cell cycle distributions were analyzed by propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry .ELISA was used to detect the level of cytokines in the super-natant of cultured cells .The expression of lymphocyte activation markers , CD25 and CD71, were measured by using fluorescence labeled antibodies and flow cytometry .Results Compared with the control group , the lymphocytes co-cultured with HO-1/BM MSCs showed a suppressed proliferation and cell cycle progression . HO-1/BM MSCs inhibited the secretion of IL-2, TNF-αand IFN-γ, but enhanced the secretion of IL-10 in lymphocytes.Furthermore, the expression of CD25 and CD71 were also down-regulated by HO-1/BM MSCs. Conclusion Compared with BM MSCs , HO-1/BM MSCs show higher immunosuppressive effects on lym-phocytes . Key words: Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell; Heme oxygenase-1 ; Lymphocyte; Immunomodulation