Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stem cells are capable of self-renew, a high degree of proliferation, with multi-differentiation potential, low immunogenicity and immunomodulatory properties. Both in vivo and in vitro it is able to regulate allogeneic immune response, to induce immune tolerance. In the solid organ transplantation it is playing an increasingly important role.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize the research progress on the immunomodulatory mechanism and application of mesenchymal stem cells in solid organ transplantation.
METHODS: An online search of Pubmed was undertaken by using the key words of “Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation, Organ Transplantation, Transplantation Immunology, Immunologic Graft Enhancement, Graft vs. Host Disease” in Mesh to identify the relevant articles published in English from January 1994 to October 2009. At the same time, Wanfang database was screened to identify the relevant articles published between January 1994 and October 2009 with the key words of “Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Organ Transplantation, Transplantation Immunology” in Chinese. Inclusive criterion: The articles related to the immunomodulatory properties, transplantation immunology and application of mesenchymal stem cells in the solid organ transplantation were included. Exclusive criterion: The articles with repetitive research or Meta analysis were excluded.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Totally 200 relevant articles were selected and 86 of them met the inclusive criterion. Mesenchymal stem cells exhibit low immunogenicity and immunomodulatory properties, have an indispensable advantage about inducing graft tolerance and repairing tissue in solid organ transplantation. The mechanism of inducting immune tolerance may be related to soluble factors, regulatory T cells, tolerant dendritic cells, bone marrow chimerism, anti-inflammatory and tissue repair, dose and time of injecting MSCs.