Cells (Jan 2019)

Assessment of the Immunosuppressive Potential of INF-γ Licensed Adipose Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Their Secretome and Extracellular Vesicles

  • Teresa Raquel Tavares Serejo,
  • Amandda Évelin Silva-Carvalho,
  • Luma Dayane de Carvalho Filiú Braga,
  • Francisco de Assis Rocha Neves,
  • Rinaldo Wellerson Pereira,
  • Juliana Lott de Carvalho,
  • Felipe Saldanha-Araujo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8010022
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
p. 22

Abstract

Read online

There is an active search for the ideal strategy to potentialize the effects of Mesenchymal Stem-Cells (MSCs) over the immune system. Also, part of the scientific community is seeking to elucidate the therapeutic potential of MSCs secretome and its extracellular vesicles (EVs), in order to avoid the complexity of a cellular therapy. Here, we investigate the effects of human adipose MSCs (AMSCs) licensing with INF-γ and TLR3 agonist over AMSCs proliferation, migration, as well as the immunomodulatory function. Furthermore, we evaluated how the licensing of AMSCs affected the immunomodulatory function of AMSC derived-secretome, including their EVs. INF-γ licensed-AMSCs presented an elevated expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), accompanied by increased ICAM-1, as well as a higher immunosuppressive potential, compared to unlicensed AMSCs. Interestingly, the conditioned medium obtained from INF-γ licensed-AMSCs also revealed a slightly superior immunosuppressive potential, compared to other licensing strategies. Therefore, unlicensed and INF-γ licensed-AMSCs groups were used to isolate EVs. Interestingly, EVs isolated from both groups displayed similar capacity to inhibit T-cell proliferation. EVs isolated from both groups shared similar TGF-β and Galectin-1 mRNA content but only EVs derived from INF-γ licensed-AMSCs expressed IDO mRNA. In summary, we demonstrated that INF-γ licensing of AMSCs provides an immunosuppressive advantage both from a cell-cell contact-dependent perspective, as well as in a cell-free context. Interestingly, EVs derived from unlicensed and INF-γ licensed-AMSCs have similar ability to control activated T-cell proliferation. These results contribute towards the development of new strategies to control the immune response based on AMSCs or their derived products.

Keywords