Immunomodulatory functions of mesenchymal stem cells and possible mechanisms
Qing Wang1,2, Gang Ding3 and Xin Xu1
1Department of Implantology, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine, Shandong University School of Stomatology, Jinan, 2Department of Dentistry, Weifang People's Hospital, Weifang and 3Department of Stomatology, Yidu Central Hospital, Weifang Medical University, Qingzhou, Shandong, China
*Qing Wang and Gang Ding contributed equally to this work
Offprint requests to: Gang Ding, Department of Stomatology, Yidu Central Hospital, Weifang Medical University, Linglongshan South Road No.4138, Qingzhou, Shandong Province, People's Republic of China. e-mail: dentistdg@sina.com or Xin Xu, Department of Implantology, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine, Shandong University School of Stomatology, Wenhua West Road No.44-1, Jinan, Shandong Province, People's Republic of China. e-mail: xinxu@sdu.edu.cn
Summary. In addition to their well-studied self-renewal capabilities and multipotent differentiation properties, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been reported to possess profound immunomodulatory functions both in vitro and in vivo. More and more studies have shown that MSCs are capable of interacting closely with almost all subsets of immune cells, such as T cells, B cells, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, macrophages, and neutrophils etc. The immunomodulatory property of MSCs may shed light on the treatment of a variety of autoimmune and inflammation-related diseases. In this article, we will review the studies on the immuno-modulatory and anti-inflammatory functions of MSCs and the mechanisms responsible for the interaction between immune cells and MSCs, which could improve the development of promising approaches for cell-mediated immune therapies. Histol Histopathol 31, 949-959 (2016)
Key words: Mesenchymal stem cells, Immunomodulation, Cell therapy, Regenerative medicine
DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-750