Human umbilical cord blood-derived non-hematopoietic stem cells suppress lymphocyte proliferation and CD4, CD8 expression.

One concern in the use of transplantation of non-hematopoietic stem cells from human umbilical cord blood (CB-nHSCs) is the possibility of rejection by the host's immune system. This study shows that both CB-nHSCs and their progenies after passaging, neuronal differentiation or IFN-gamma treatment have no significant effects on proliferation of xenogenic T lymphocytes. CB-nHSCs transplanted into the striatum of SD rat are shown to induce a lower level of CD4 and CD8 expression in the brain and in the peripheral blood and to survive better in the brain than SH-SY5Y cells. The results indicate that both undifferentiated and differentiated CB-nHSCs all have weak immunogenicity.