Treatment of Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease by Means of Multipotent Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: Role of Immunomodulating Soluble Factors Expressed by These Cells in Vitro

Severe graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a life-threatening complication after allogeneic hematopoietic-stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Steroids are the first-line treatment for established GvHD with a response rate of 30–50%. The efficacy of multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MMSCs) in the treatment of steroid-resistant GvHD was reported to be 71–94%. Although it has been shown that the immunomodulatory effect of MMSCs mainly occurs through the secretion of soluble mediators, the exact mechanism of their action remains controversial.

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of immunomodulating factors expressed by donor's MMSCs in vitro on the efficacy of MMSCs in the treatment of steroid-resistant GvHD. IL-6, IL-10, colony stimulating factor 1 (CSF1), indoleamine 2, 3 dioxygenase (IDO1), prostaglandin E synthase (PTEGS) and complement factor H (CFH) were measured as factors playing substantial role in GvHD development.

Five patients with steroid resistant acute GvHD were treated with bone marrow derived MMSCs from hematopoietic stem cells donors. MMSCs were infused intravenously at the dose 1×10⁶ per kg of body weight. The efficiency of GvHD therapy by means of MMSCs was scored as: complete response – 3, partial response - 2, clinical improvement – 1, no response – 0.

MMSCs were cultured in aMEM with 4% human platelet lysate for 2–5 passages. Total RNA was extracted from MMSCs at 2–3 passages by standard protocol. Relative level of gene expression was estimated by the real-time PCR with previous reverse transcription in MMSCs from 31 donors and determined by normalizing the expression of each target gene to b-actin and GAPDH, calculated using ΔΔC_t method for each MMSCs sample.

Characteristics of patients, donors and graft MMSCs are shown in the table 1.

Correlation between relative level of gene expression and efficacy of MMSCs infusion was investigated. The existence of inverse negative relationship between IL-6, CSF1 expression level and treatment score was revealed. The increased level of IL-6 in donor's MMSCs in patients with low and no response (treatment score 1 – 0) could be related to main functions of this factor in inflammation. Increased level of CSF1 in donors' MMSCs could further enhance macrophage activation resulting in GvHD progression instead of inhibition. The augmentation of PTGES expression could be associated with improvement of response to MMSCs therapy, but the correlation was not found. There were no relationship between the expression levels of IL-10, IDO1 and CFH and efficiency of MMSCs infusion.

In a patient with no response the relative expression level of all studied factors was altered in comparison with average level of their expression in MMSCs from studied donors: IL-6 and CSF1 increased about 2 fold, while the expression level of IL-10, CHF and PTGES decreased 1.7, 12 and 11 fold correspondingly. So not all MMSCs fit to GvHD therapy that could be associated with their characteristics.

The data demonstrate the influence of IL-6, CSF1 and PTGES expression on the efficacy of MMSCs in the treatment of steroid-resistant GvHD. As most clinical trials involve non-relative allogeneic MMSCs, analysis of expression level of IL6, CSF1 and PTGES in available MMSCs before infusion could predict the efficiency of acute GvHD therapy and permit the choice of the most proper samples. For successful clinical use of MMSCs further investigation of their properties on cellular and molecular levels are needed.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.