Mesenchymal Stem Cells Suppress Dendritic Cells and Modulate Proinflammatory Milieu Through Interleukin-10 Expression in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Human Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Abstract

Immune-mediated inflammatory injury among systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) individuals may be involved by dendritic cells (DCs) abnormality though the underlying mechanism remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to elaborate MSCs' potential in suppressing abnormal DCs cell function on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) among SLE patients. MSCs were isolated from human umbilical cord blood. On the other side, human PBMCs were isolated from 20 active SLE patients and 5 healthy controls. The PBMCs of SLE patients were divided into 5 groups: sham (Sh) and control (C) groups were treated with standard medium, and the treatment groups (T1, T2 and T3) was co-cultured with hUC-MSC at doses of 1:1, 1:25, and 1:50 (MSCs:PBMCs). The expression of CD11c in DCs was analyzed using flow cytometry, while the level of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and IL-10 was analyzed using cytometric bead array (CBA). The MSCs significantly downregulates CD11c of dendritic cells in all treatment groups. MSCs also significantly suppress the level of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and the significantly enhance IL-10 level in all treatment groups. Therefore, MSCs could suppress DCs through regulating the proinflammatory milieu in PBMCs of SLE patients.