Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Suppress Autophagy of T Cells in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus via Transfer of Mitochondria

Figure 4

SLE patients had excessive mitochondria within T cells. PBMCs were stimulated with or without anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies (3 μg/mL) for 3 days. In vitro experiments were performed in triplicate. Both respiratory (a) and total mitochondrial mass (b) of CD3+T cells from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients () were significantly higher than that from healthy controls (), and respiratory mitochondrial mass further increased following anti-CD3/CD28 activation. < 0.05, < 0.001.

(a)

(b)