Suppression of human peripheral blood lymphocyte proliferation by immortalized mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow of Banna Minipig inbred-line.

This study sought to investigate whether mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) derived from Banna Minipig Inbred-line (BMI-MSC) suppressed human peripheral blood lymphocyte (hPBLs) proliferation in a one-way mixed lymphocyte reaction system. BMI-MSC failed to stimulate proliferative responses by hPBLs, which were activated by allogenic endothelial cells, BMI-PBLs and non-specific mitogenic stimuli. Furthermore, BMI-MSC also suppressed proliferation of hPBLs stimulated by mismatched allogenic, as well as xenogenic PBLs, and the mitogenic stimulus ConA. The suppression occurred in dose-dependent fashion when the ratio of hPBLs to BMI-MSC varied from 1 to 5 fold; fewer, BMI-MSC (0.001 to 0.01 times) showed no obvious suppression. When BMI-MSC were added to hPBLs stimulated for 72 hours, the proliferative suppression was still evident. Addition of anti-FasL or anti-TGF-beta1 antibody attenuated the proliferative suppression, while antibody against IL-10 had no effect on it. Further immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that FasL and TGF-beta1 constitutively expressed BMI-MSC. These findings suggest that BMI-MSC suppress hPBLs proliferation relying on FasL and TGF-beta1 mediated pathways.