Regulation of mesenchymal stem cells on CD4+LAP+Treg cells in patients with systemic lupus erythem-atosus

Abstract

Objective To investigate the immune regulatory effects of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) transplantation on CD4+LAP+ Treg cells in the peripheral blood of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods CD4+LAP+ Treg cells were detected in the peripheral blood from 30 SLE patients and 30 normal controls by flow cytometry. Five SLE patients received UC-MSCs transplantation, and their peripheral blood was collected before and after 24 hours of cell infusion. The percentages of CD4+LAP+ T cells were detected by flow cytometry. Data were analyzed with t test and Spearman correlation test. Results The percentage of CD4+LAP+ Treg cells in the peripheral blood of SLE patients [(2.49±0.23)%] decreased remarkably compared with healthy controls [(3.35±0.19)%] (r=3.079, P<0.01), and it was negatively correlated with serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) [(40±44) U/L, r=-0.51, P<0.05], AST [(35±53) U/L, r=-0.52, P<0.05) and ALP [(64±25) U/L, r=-0.53, P<0.01) level res-pectively. 24 hours after UC-MSCs tran-splantation, the percentages of CD4+LAP+ Treg cells increased signif-icantly in SLE patients[(3.6±0.9)% vs(2.1±0.6)%, r=3.508, P<0.05]. Conclusion The significantly decreased percentage of CD4+LAP+ Treg cells in patients with SLE suggests thatthey may participate in the pathogenesis of SLE. UC-MSCs transplantation can upregulate the expression of CD4+LAP+ Treg cells in SLE patients, and the modulatory effects of UC-MSCs on CD4+LAP+ Treg cells may be one of the mechanisms of UC-MSCs therapy in ameliorating the disease. Key words: Lupus erythematosus, systemic; Mesenchymal stem cells; CD4+LAP+ Treg