Comparison of the immunosuppressive capacity of mesenchymal stem cells derived from amniotic fluid, amniotic membrane and Wharton’s jelly

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have promise for clinical therapy due to their differentiation characteristic, in vitro propagation ability and also low immunogenic property. MSCs have low expression of major histocompatability complex (MHC) class I and lack of MHC class II. However, MSCs derived from different sources can exhibit differential immunosuppressive capacity. In this study, we investigated the immunosuppressive capacity of MSCs derived from 3 different sources, including human amniotic fluid (AF), amniotic membrane (AM) and Wharton’s jelly (WJ) by assessing the effect on phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation. MSCs derived from AF (n = 6), AM (n = 10) and WJ (n = 10) were inactivated with mitomycin-C and co-cultured with PHA-induced PBMC in 1:10 ration for 72 hr. The MTT assay was used to calculate the amount of PBMC proliferation, demonstrating immunosuppressive activity of MSCs. The co-cultured of these MSCs and PHA-induced PBMC was analyzed and showed into the percentage of the inhibition rate. After 72 hr of co-culture, AF-MSCs, AM-MSCs and WJ-MSCs suppressed PHA-induced PBMC proliferation. WJ-MSCs showed the highest of the percentage of inhibition rate at the 124.06% ± 24.76%, whereas AF-MSCs showed at the 86.53% ± 8.81% (P value = 0.0033) and AM-MSCs showed 102.69% ± 19.2% (P value = 0.0448). Our result showed that WJ-MSCs had the stronger suppressive effect on PBMC among the 3 populations of MSCs in the co-culture experiments.