Regulation of mesenchymal stem cells on CD4+LAP+Freg cells in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中华风湿病学杂志

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 transplantation,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.