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

Figure 6

UC-MSCs rescued T cells from apoptosis by inhibiting autophagy activation of T cells in cell contact-dependent way. PBMCs from SLE patients were cultured with or without UC-MSCs (UC-MSCs : T = 1 : 100 or 1 : 10) and stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 antibodies (3 μg/mL) for 3 days. All experiments were performed in triplicate. (a) Representatives of UC-MSCs’ inhibition on autophagy of CD3+T cells, CD4+T cells, and CD8+T cells, respectively. (b) UC-MSCs inhibited autophagy of CD3+T, CD4+T, and CD8+T cells dose-dependently (). (c) UC-MSCs suppressed T cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent way (). (d) Coculture with UC-MSCs via transwell could not inhibit T cell autophagy (). (e) Treatment of T cells with AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activator abrogated UC-MSCs’ inhibition on T cell apoptosis (). ns, not significant;  ;  ;  .