The immunomodulatory function and clinical applications of mesenchymal stem cells / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the abilities of self-renewal, multidirectional differentiation and immunomodulation, and have become the focus of current research. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the immunomodulation of MSCs to different immune cells and the clinical applications of MSCs in the treatment of immune-related diseases. METHODS: The first author searched the PubMed and the CKNI databases for relative articles from January 1974 to December 2016. The key words were mesenchymal stem cells, immunomodulation, MSC1 and MSC2, autoimmune diseases in English and Chinese, respectively. Finally, 52 representative articles were included. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: MSCs can inhibit the function of T lymphocytes, reduce the activation, proliferation and antibody secretion of B lymphocytes, affect the polarization of macrophages, inhibit the maturation of dendritic cells, inhibit the proliferation and toxicity of NK cells, so MSCs have the great potential in the treatment of immune-related diseases. However, MSCs exhibit the opposite immunomodulatory abilities under different inflammatory microenvironments, and moreover the definite and controllable mechanism of this phenomenon is still unclear, Therefore, future investigations may focus on the specific mechanism of MSCs in the clinical treatment of immune-related diseases.