Research Article

Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Display Impaired Function in Inhibiting Th17 Cells

Figure 1

Impaired capacity of RA MSCs to inhibit Th17 cell polarization. (a) Flow cytometric analysis of IL-17A+CD4+ T cells under Th17-polarizing conditions with or without MSCs ( in each group). Percentages of Th17 subset are shown as mean ± SEM. (b) Production of IL-17A in cultured supernatants at day 5. (c–g) mRNA levels of immunomodulatory molecules TGF-β1, IDO, PGE2, IL-6, and CCL2 between control MSCs and RA MSCs after coculture with T cells. (h) Basal expressions of CCL2 in control MSCs and RA MSCs. (i-j) Percentages of IL-17A+CD4+ T cells after blocking CCL2 with neutralizing antibody at different concentrations in control MSC and CD4+ T cell coculture system under Th17-polarizing condition. ; ; n.s., no significant difference. TGF-β1, transforming growth factor β1; IDO, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase; PGE2, prostaglandin E2; CCL2, chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2.