Acta Academiae Medicinae Sinica

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the effect of adipose mesenchymal stem cells(AMSCs) on the peripheral blood lymphocyte(PBL) in psoriasis vulgaris(PV) patients and the expression and secretion profiles of related inflammatory cytokines in the PBL.
Methods AMSCs from three PV patients were co-cultured with PBL. Peripheral blood regulatory cells(Treg) and T helper cell 17(Th17)ratio was measured by flow cytometry. The anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines expressed and secreted by PBL were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).
Results The Treg/total lymphocyte ratio was significantly higher in the healthy people AMSCs+PBL co-culture group[(3.2±0.5)%;P=0.001],but AMSCs in patients had a tendency to promote the proliferation of Treg cells [(1.3±0.2)%],with no significant difference(P=0.485) when compared with the PBL culture alone group[(1.0±0.1)%]. qRT-PCR showed that the ability of PBL in expressing Treg transcription factor forkhead box p3 and transforming growth factor(TGF)-β mRNA was significantly lower in psoriasis AMSCs+PBL co-culture group than in the healthy people AMSCs+PBL co-culture group(P=0.00,P=0.03),AMSCs had a tendency to promote the expression of interlukin(IL)-10 in peripheral blood lymphocytes,but there was no significant difference(P=0.09).ELISA showed the PBL in healthy people AMSCs+PBL co-culture group secreted the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10[(156.9±41.8) ng/μl] and TGF-β[(2774.1 ± 526.4) ng/μl];in contrast,the abilities of PBL in PV patient AMSCs+PBL co-culture group in secreting the anti-inflammatory cytokines has a downward trend:IL-10[(90.4±28.8) ng/μl] and TGF-β[(1597.9±55.7) ng/μl],although the differences were not statistically significant. After the co-culture,the proportion of Th17 cells in the psoriasis AMSCs+PBL co-culture group[(0.8±0.3)%] showed a decreasing trend when compared with the PBL culture alone group[(1.1±0.1)%],although the results were not statistically significant. Also,the proportion of Th17 cells showed no significant difference between PV patient AMSCs+PBL co-culture group and healthy people AMSCs+PBL co-culture group. Finally,both the psoriasis AMSCs+PBL co-culture group and the healthy people AMSCs+PBL co-culture group showed no obvious inhibitory effect on the expression and secretion of Th17 transcription factor retinoid-related orphan nuclear receptor γt and pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-17 and IL-23 in PBL,and there was no significant difference between these two groups.
Conclusions AMSCs in PV patients have decreased ability in regulating the anti-inflammatory function of peripheral blood Treg lymphocytes. However,they have no effect on the proinflammatory effect of peripheral blood Th17 lymphocytes.

Key words: psoriasis vulgaris, peripheral blood lymphocytes, adipose mesenchymal stem cells, immune regulation